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THE UNIT BOOKS 
No. 2 1 October 1903 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

This edition is published under a 
special arrangement with The 
Century Co.^ publishei's of the 
complete works of Abraham 
Lincoln and owners of copyright 
material relating to Mr. Lincoln 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




NEW YORK 
HOWARD WILFORD BELL 

259 FIFTH AVENUE 
1 903 






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Copyright 1 903 
BY Howard Wilfobd Bell 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
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The Trow Press New York 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[From an address to the people of Sangamon county, 
Illinois, at New Salem, 9 March 1832. Lincoln's first 
public speech.] 

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether 
it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so 
great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by 
rendering mj^self worthy of their esteem. How far I shall 
succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I 
am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and 
have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have 
no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. 
My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters 
of the country; and, if elected, they will have conferred a 
favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors 
to compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom 
shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too 
familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined. 

[Letter to the editor of the Sangamon Journal, New Salem, 

13 June 1836.] 

To the Editor of the " Journal " : In your paper of last 
Saturday I see a communication, over the signature of 
"Many Voters," in which the candidates who are announced 
in the "Journal" are called upon to "show their hands." 
Agreed. Here's mine. 

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who 

5 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently^ I go for admit- 
ting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear 
arms (by no means excluding females). 

If elected^ I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon 
my constituents^ as well those that oppose as those that sup- 
port me. 

While acting as their representative^ I shall be governed 
by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of 
knowing what their will is; and upon all others I shall do 
what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their 
interests. Whether elected or not^ I go for distributing the 
proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several States, 
to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and 
construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the 
interest on it. 

If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for 
Hugh L. White for President. 



[Letter to Colonel Robert Allen, 21 June 1836.] 

Dear Colonel : I am told that during my absence last week 
you passed through this place, and stated publicly that you 
were in possession of a fact or facts which, if known to the 
public, would entirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Ed- 
wards and myself at the ensuing election ; but that, through 
favor to us, you should forbear to divulge them. No one 
has needed favors more than I, and, generally, few have 
been less unwilling to accept them ; but in this case favor to 
me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must 
beg your pardon for declining it. That I once had the con- 
fidence of the people of Sangamon, is sufficiently evident; 
and if I have since done anything, either by design or mis- 
adventure, which if known would subj ect me to a forfeiture 

6 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of that confidence, he that knows of that thing, and conceals 
it, is a traitor to his country's interest. 

I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of 
what fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke; but my 
opinion of your veracity will not permit me for a moment to 
doubt that you at least believed what you said. I am flat- 
tered with the personal regard you manifested for me; but 
I do hope that, on more mature reflection, you will view the 
public interest as a paramount consideration, and therefore 
determine to let the worst come. I here assure you that the 
candid statement of facts on your part, however low it may 
sink me, shall never break the tie of personal friendship be- 
tween us. I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty 
to publish both, if you choose. 



[From an address before the young men's lyceum of Spring- 
field, Illinois, 27 January 1837.] 

As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The per- 
petuation of our political institutions" is selected. 

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, 
we, the American people, find our account running under 
date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We 
find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest por- 
tion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of 
soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the 
government of a system of political institutions conducing 
more essentially to» the ends of civil and religious liberty 
than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, 
when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the 
legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled 
not in the acquirement or establishment of them ; they are a 
legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, 

7 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs 
was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess them- 
selves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and 
to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of 
liberty and equal rights ; 't is ours only to transmit these — 
the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter 
undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — 
to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to 
know. X This task gratitude to our fathers, j ustice to our- 
selves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, 
all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. 

How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we 
expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we 
fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic mili- 
tary giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow ? Never ! 
All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with 
all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their 
military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not 
by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the 
Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. 

At what point then is the approach of danger to be ex- 
pected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up 
amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be 
our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a 
nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by 
suicide. ;^ 

I hop'e I am over wary ; but if I am not, there is even now 
something of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing 
disregard for law which pervades the country — the growing 
disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu 
of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage 
mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This disposi- 
tion is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now 
exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it 

8 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence 
to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the 
every-day news of the times. They have pervaded the 
country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither 
peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning 
suns of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, 
neither are they confined to the slaveholding or the non- 
slaveholding States. Alike they spring up among the pleas- 
ure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving 
citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their 
cause may be, it is common to the whole country. 

It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors 
of all of them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi 
and at St. Louis are perhaps the most dangerous in example 
and revolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case they 
first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers — a set of 
men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful 
or very honest occupation, but one which, so far from being 
forbidden b}'' the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the 
legislature passed but a single year before. Next, negroes 
suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection were caught 
up and hanged in all parts of the State; then, white men 
supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, 
strangers from neighboring States, going thither on busi- 
ness, were in many instances subjected to the same fate. 
Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to 
negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to 
strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from 
the boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers 
almost sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the 
country as a drapery of the forest. 

Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A 
single victim only was sacrificed there. This story is very 
short, and is perhaps the most highly tragic of anything of 

9 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

its length that has ever been witnessed in real life. A 
mulatto man by the name of Mcintosh was seized in the 
street^ dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, 
and actually burned to death; and all within a single hour 
from the time he had been a freeman attending to his own 
business and at peace with the world. 

Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes 
becoming more and more frequent in this land so lately 
famed for love of law and order, and the stories of which 
have even now grown too familiar to attract anything more 
than an idle remark. 

But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do 
with the perpetuation of our political institutions?" I an- 
swer, "It has much to do with it." Its direct consequences 
are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil, and much of 
its danger consists in the proneness of our minds to regard 
its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the 
hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little con- 
sequence. They constitute a portion of population that is 
worse than useless in any community ; and their death, if no 
pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable 
regret with any one. If they were annually swept from the 
stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, honest men 
would perhaps be much profited by the operation. Similar 
too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the 
negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by the per- 
petration of an outrageous murder upon one of the most 
worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he not 
died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law 
in a very short time afterward. As to him alone, it was as 
well the way it was as it could otherwise have been. But 
the example in either case was fearful. When men take it 
in their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, 
they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending 

10 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

such transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn some 
one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, 
and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to- 
morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them 
by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, 
those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in 
every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages 
of mob law ; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls 
erected for the defense of the persons and property of indi- 
viduals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, 
even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, 
by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpun- 
ished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless 
in practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread 
of punishment, tliey thus become absolutely unrestrained. 
Having ever regarded government as their deadliest bane, 
they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and 
pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation. While, 
on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who 
desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who 
would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their coun- 
try, seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, 
and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing 
nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, 
become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers 
them no protection, and are not much averse to a change in 
which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, 
by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must 
admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any 
government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, 
may effectually be broken down and destroyed — I mean the 
attachment of the people. Whenever this effect shall be pro- 
duced among us ; whenever the vicious portion of population 
shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thou- 

11 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

sands^ and burn churches^ ravage and rob provision-stores, 
throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang 
and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, 
depend on it, this government cannot last. By such things 
the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less 
alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or 
with too few, and those few too weak to make their friend- 
ship effectual. At such a time, and under such circum- 
stances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be 
wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and over- 
turn that fair fabric which for the last half century has been 
the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the 
world. 

I know the American people are much attached to their 
government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I 
know they would endure evils long and patiently before they 
would ever think of exchanging it for another, — yet, not- 
withstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised 
and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons 
and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice 
of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the govern- 
ment is the natural consequence ; and to that, sooner or later, 
it must come. 

Here then is one point at which danger may be expected. 

The question recurs, "How shall we fortifj'^ against it?" 
The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover 
of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the 
blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particu- 
lar the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their viola- 
tion by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the 
support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the sup- 
port of the Constitution and laws let every American pledge 
his life, his property, and his sacred honor — ^let every man 
remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood 

12 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his chil- 
dren's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by 
every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on 
her lap ; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in col- 
leges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in 
almanacs ; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in 
legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in 
short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and 
let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave 
and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and condi- 
tions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 

While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally 
or even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain 
will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert 
our national freedom. 

When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the 
laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad 
laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of 
which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say 
no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad 
laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, 
still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example 
they should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided 
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be made 
for them with the least possible delay, but till then let them, 
if not too intolerable, be borne with. 

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob 
law. In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the pro- 
mulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily 
true — that is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore 
deserves the protection of all law and all good citizens, or it 
is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal 
enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob 
law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 

13 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

But it may be asked^ "Why suppose danger to our political 
institutions? Have we not preserved them for more than 
fifty years? And why may we not for fifty times as 
long?" 

We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger 
may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever 
arise would itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, 
and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their ten- 
dency, which have not existed heretofore, and which are not 
too insignificant to merit attention. That our government 
should have been maintained in its original form, from its 
establishment until now, is not much to be wondered at. It 
had many props to support it through that period, which now 
are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period it 
was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is 
understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought 
celebrity and fame and distinction expected to find them in 
the success of that experiment. Their all was staked upon 
it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their am- 
bition aspired to display before an admiring world a prac- 
tical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had 
hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical 
— namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves. 
If they succeeded they were to be immortalized; their names 
were to be transferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and 
mountains ; and to be revered and sung, toasted through all 
time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves, and 
fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be 
forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is success- 
ful, and thousands have won their deathless names in 
making it so. But the game is caught; and I believe it is 
true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase. 
This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already 
appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too 

14 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will seek a field. It is to deny what the history of the world 
tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents 
will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they 
do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their rul- 
ing passion as others have done before them. The question 
then is. Can that gratification be found in supporting and 
maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others.^ 
Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, suffi- 
ciently qualified for any task they should undertake, may 
ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing be- 
yond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential 
chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the 
tribe of the eagle. What ! think you these places would 
satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! 
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions 
hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story 
to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory 
of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under 
any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any prede- 
cessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinc- 
tion; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense 
of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it un- 
reasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the 
loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to 
its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? 
And when such an one does, it will require the people to be 
united with each other, attached to the government and 
laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his 
designs. 

Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he 
would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing 
good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing 
left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly 
to the task of pulling down. 

15 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Here then is a probable case^ highly dangerous, and such 
an one as could not have well existed heretofore. 

Another reason which once was, but which, to the samel 
extent, is now no more, has done much in maintaining our- 
institutions thus far. I mean the powerful influence which 
the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon the pas- 
sions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. 
By this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to 
our nature, and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, 
and conscious strength, were for the time in a great measure 
smothered and rendered inactive, while the deep-rooted prin- 
ciples of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, instead 
of being turned against each other, were directed exclusively 
against the British nation. And thus, from the force of cir- 
cumstances, the basest principles of our nature were either 
made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the 
advancement of the noblest of causes — that of establishing 
and maintaining civil and religious liberty. 

But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, 
with the circumstances that produced it. 

I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution 
are now or ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like 
everything else, they must fade upon the memory of the 
world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. 
In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so 
long as the Bible shall be read ; but even granting that they 
will, their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. 
Even then they cannot be so universally known nor so vividly 
felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At 
the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been 
a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was 
that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a 
son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every 
family — a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its 

16 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the sears of 
wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related — a 
history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, 
the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. 
But those histories are gone. They can be read no more 
forever. They were a fortress of strength ; but what invad- 
ing foeman could never do, the silent artillery of time has 
done — the leveling of its walls. They are gone. They 
were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-restless hurricane 
has swept over them, and left only here and there a lonely 
trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshad- 
ing and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, 
and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder 
storms, then to sink and be no more. 

They were pillars of the temple of liberty ; and now that 
they have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, 
their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, 
hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has 
helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our 
enemy. Reason — cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason — 
must furnish all the materials for our future support and 
defense. Let those materials be molded into general intelli- 
gence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the 
Constitution and laws; and that we improved to the last, 
that we remained free to the last, that we revered his name 
to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile 
foot to pass over or desecrate his resting-place, shall be that 
which to learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. 

Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the 
rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only 
greater institution, "the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it.'* 



17 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

[Protest in Illinois legislature, 3 March 1837- Lincoln's 
first political action in regard to slavery.] 

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 
passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present 
session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage 
of the same. 

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on 
both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of 
abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its 
evils. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has 
no power under the Constitution to interfere with the insti- 
tution of slavery in the different States. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has 
the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be 
exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. 

The difference between these opinions and those contained 
in the said resolutions is their reason for entering this pro- 
test. 

Dan Stone, 
A. Lincoln. 

[Letter to Miss Mary Owens, Springfield, Illinois, 
7 May 1837.] 

Friend Mary : I have commenced two letters to send you 
before this, both of which displeased me before I got half 
done, and so I tore them up. The first I thought was not 
serious enough, and the second was on the other extreme. I 
shall send this, turn out as it may. 

This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull busi- 
ness, after all; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lone- 

18 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

some here as I ever was anywhere in my life. I have been 
spoken to by but one woman since I have been here, and 
should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. 
I 've never been to church yet, and probably shall not be 
soon. I stay away because I am conscious I should not 
know how to behave myself. 

I am often thinking of what we said about your coming 
to live at Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satis- 
fied. There is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages 
here, which it would be your doom to see without sharing it. 
You would have to be poor, without the means of hiding 
your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? 
Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any 
ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make 
her happy and contented ; and there is nothing I can imagine 
that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. 
I know I should be much happier with you than the way I 
am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What 
you have said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I 
may have misunderstood it. If so, then let it be forgotten; 
if otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously before 
you decide. What I have said I will most positively abide 
by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had better 
not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and 
it may be more severe than you now imagine. I know you 
are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you 
deliberate maturely upon this before you decide, then I am 
willing to abide your decision. 

[Letter to Miss Mary Owens, Springfield, Illinois, 

16 August 1837.] 

Friend Mary: You will no doubt think it rather strange 
that I should write you a letter on the same day on which 

19 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

we parted, and I can only account for it by supposing that 
seeing you lately makes me think of you more than usual; 
while at our late meeting we had but few expressions of 
thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you or think of 
you with entire indifference; and yet it may be that you are 
mistaken in regard to what my real feelings toward you are. 
If I knew you were not, I should not trouble you with this 
letter. Perhaps any other man would know enough without 
further information; but I consider it my peculiar right to 
plead ignorance, and your bounden duty to allow the plea. 
I want in all cases to do right, and most particularly so in 
all cases with women. I want at this particular time, more 
than anything else, to do right with you; and if I knew it 
would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to let you 
alone, I would do it. And for the purpose of making the 
matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can now drop 
the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) 
from me forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without 
calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will 
even go further, and say that if it will add anything to your 
comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that 
you should. Do not imderstand by this that I wish to cut 
your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish 
is that our further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. 
If such further acquaintance would contribute nothing to 
your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you 
feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing 
to release j^ou, provided you wish it; while, on the other 
hand, I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I 
can be convinced that it will, in any considerable degree, add 
to your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question with 
me. Nothing would make me more miserable than to be- 
lieve you miserable — nothing more happy than to know you 
were so. 

20 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunder- 
stood, and to make myself understood is the only object of 
this letter. 

If it suits you best to not answer this, farewell. A long 
life and a merry one attend you. But if you conclude to 
write back, speak as plainly as I do. There can be neither 
harm nor danger in saying to me anything you think, just in 
the manner you think it. 



[Letter to Mrs. O. H. Browning, Springfield, Illinois, 
1 April 1838.] 

Dear Madam : Without apologizing for being egotistical, 
I shall make the history of so much of my life as has elapsed 
since I saw you the subject of this letter. And, by the way, 
I now discover that in order to give a full and intelligible 
account of the things I have done and suffered since I saw 
you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that happened 
before. 

It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 that a married lady 
of my acquaintance, and who was a great friend of mine, 
being about to pay a visit to her father and other relatives 
residing in Kentucky, proposed to me that on her return she 
would brino^ a sister of hers with her on condition that I 
would enffaa:e to become her brother-in-law with all con- 
venient despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for 
you know I could not have done otherwise had I really been 
averse to it ; but privately, between you and me, I was most 
confoundedly well pleased with the project. I had seen the 
said sister some three years before, thought her intelligent 
and agreeable, and saw no good objection to plodding life 
through hand in hand with her. Time passed on, the lady 
took her journey, and in due time returned, sister in com- 

21 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

pany, sure enough. This astonished me a little, for it ap- 
peared to me that her coming so readily showed that she was 
a trifle too willing, but on reflection it occurred to me that 
she might have been prevailed on by her married sister to 
come, without anything concerning me ever having been men- 
tioned to her, and so I concluded that if no other objection 
presented itself, I would consent to waive this. All this 
occurred to me on hearing of her arrival in the neighbor- 
hood — for, be it remembered, I had not yet seen her, except 
about three years previous, as above mentioned. In a few 
days we had an interview, and, although I had seen her 
before, she did not look as my imagination had pictured 
her. I knew she was over-size, but she now appeared a 
fair match for Falstaff". I knew she was called an "old 
maid," and I felt no doubt of the truth of at least half of the 
appellation, but now, when I beheld her, I could not for my 
life avoid thinking of my mother; and this, not from with- 
ered features, — for her skin was too full of fat to permit 
of its contracting into wrinkles, — but from her want of teeth, 
weather-beaten appearance in general, and from a kind of 
notion that ran in my head that nothing could have com- 
menced at the size of infancy and reached her present bulk in 
less than thirty-five or forty years; and, in short, I was not 
at all pleased with her. But what could I do ? I had told 
her sister that I would take her for better or for worse, and 
I made a point of honor and conscience in all things to stick 
to my word, especially if others had been induced to act on 
it, which in this case I had no doubt they had, for I was now 
fairly convinced that no other man on earth would have her, 
and hence the conclusion that they were bent on holding me 
to my bargain. "Well," thought I, "I have said it, and, be 
the consequences what they may, it shall not be my fault 
if I fail to do it." At once I determined to consider her my 
wife, and this done, all my powers of discovery were put to 

22 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

work in search of perfections in her which might be fairly 
set off against her defects. I tried to imagine her handsome, 
which, but for her unfortunate corpulency, was actually true. 
Exclusive of this, no woman that I have ever seen has a finer 
face. I also tried to convince myself that the mind was 
much more to be valued than the person, and in this she was 
not inferior, as I could discover, to any with whom I had been 
acquainted. 

Shortly after this, without attempting to come to any posi- 
tive understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia, when 
and where you first saw me. During my stay there I had 
letters from her which did not change my opinion of either 
her intellect or intention, but, on the contrary, confirmed it 
in both. 

All this while, although I was fixed "firm as the surge- 
repelling rock" in my resolution, I found I was continually 
repenting the rashness which had led me to make it. 
Through life I have been in no bondage, either real or imag- 
inary, from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be 
free. After my return home I saw nothing to change my 
opinion of her in any particular. She was the same, and 
so was I. I now spent my time in planning how I might 
get along in life after my contemplated change of circum- 
stances should have taken place, and how I might procras- 
tinate the evil day for a time, which I really dreaded as 
much, perhaps more, than an Irishman does the halter. 

After all my sufferings upon this deeply interesting sub- 
ject, here I am, wholly, unexpectedly, completely out of the 
"scrape," and I now want to know if you can guess how I 
got out of it — out, clear, in every sense of the term — no 
violation of word, honor, or conscience. I don't believe you 
can guess, and so I might as well tell you at once. As the 
lawyer says, it was done in the manner following, to wit: 
After I had delayed the matter as long as I thought I could 

23 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

in honor do (which, by the way, had brought me round into 
the last fall), I concluded I might as well bring it to a con- 
summation without further delay, and so I mustered my 
resolution and made the proposal to her direct ; but, shocking 
to relate, she answered. No. At first I supposed she did it 
through an affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill 
became her under the peculiar circumstances of her case, but 
on my renewal of the charge I found she repelled it with 
greater firmness than before. I tried it again and again, 
but with the same success, or rather with the same want of 
success. 

I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very unex- 
pectedly found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. 
I was mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. 
My vanity was deeply wounded by the reflection that I had 
so long been too stupid to discover her intentions, and at the 
same time never doubting that I understood them perfectly ; 
and also that she, whom I had taught myself to believe no- 
body else would have, had actually rejected me with all my 
fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the 
i5rst time began to suspect that I was really a little in love 
with her. But let it all go ! I 11 try and outlive it. Others 
have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with 
truth be said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, 
made a fool of myself. I have now come to the conclusion 
never again to think of marrying, and for this reason — I can 
never be satisfied with any one who would be blockhead 
enough to have me. 

When you receive this, write me a long yarn about some- 
thing to amuse me. Give my respects to Mr. Browning. 



24 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a speech at a political discussion in the hall of the 
house of representatives at Springfield^ Illinois, 20 (?) 
December 1839-] 

Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van 
Buren party and the Whigs is that although the former 
sometimes err in practice, they are always correct in princi- 
ple, whereas the latter are wrong in principle ; and, better to 
impress this proposition, he uses a figurative expression in 
these words: "The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but 
they are sound in the head and the heart." The first branch 
of the figure — that is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in 
the heel — I admit is not merely figuratively, but literally true. 
Who that looks but for a moment at their Swartwouts, their 
Prices, their Harringtons, and their hundreds of others, 
scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, 
and to every spot of the earth where a villain ma}?^ hope to 
find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most 
distressingly affected in their heels with a species of "run- 
ning itch." It seems that this malady of their heels operates 
on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures very 
much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: 
which, when he had once got started on it, the more he tried 
to stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of 
wearing this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote 
which seems too strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty 
Irish soldier, who was always boasting of his bravery when 
no danger was near, but who invariably retreated without 
orders at the first charge of an engagement, being asked by 
his captain why he did so, replied: "Captain, I have as brave 
a heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow or other, 
whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run 
away with it." So with Mr. Lamborn's party. They take 

25 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

the public money into their hand for the most laudable pur- 
pose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but be- 
fore they can possibly get it out again, their rascally "vul- 
nerable heels" will run away with them. 

Seriously, this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing 
more or less than a request that his party may be tried by 
their professions instead of their practices. Perhaps no 
position that the party assumes is more liable to or more 
deserving of exposure than this very modest request; and 
nothing but the unwarrantable length to which I have already 
extended these remarks forbids me now attempting to expose 
it. For the reason given, I pass it by. 

I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers 
to the late elections in the States, and from their results con- 
fidently predicts that every State in the Union will vote for 
Mr. Van Buren at the next presidential election. Address 
that argument to cowards and to knaves ; with the free and 
the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true ; if it must, 
let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours 
may lose hers ; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not 
that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. 
I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and 
directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth 
the lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, 
which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole 
length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave un- 
scathed no green spot or living thing ; while on its bosom are 
riding, like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that 
evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist 
its destroying course with the hopelessness of their effort; 
and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. 
Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The 
probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to 
deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it 

26 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate 
and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its 
almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my 
country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up 
boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious op- 
pressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, be- 
fore high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal 
fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, 
my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will 
not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take ? Let none falter 
who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after 
all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud 
consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed 
shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of 
our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in 
chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. 



[Letter to John T. Stuart, Springfield, Illinois, 1 March 

1840.] 

Dear Stuart : I have never seen the prospects of our party 
so bright in these parts as they are now. We shall carry 
this county by a larger majority than we did in 1836, when 
you ran against May. I do not think my prospects indi- 
vidually are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall 
not be permitted to be a candidate ; but the party ticket will 
succeed triumphantly. Subscriptions to the "Old Soldier" 
pour in without abatement. This morning I took from the 
post-office a letter from Dubois inclosing the names of sixty 
subscribers; and on carrying it to Francis, I found he had 
received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by 
the same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of 
every day's receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to 
consider himself insulted by something in the "Journal," un- 

27 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

dertook to cane Francis in the street. Francis caught him 
by the hair and jammed him back against a market-cart, 
where the matter ended by Francis being pulled away from 
him. The whole affair was so ludicrous that Francis and 
everybody else (Douglas excepted) have been laughing 
about it ever since. 



[Letter to W, G. Anderson, Lawijenceville, Illinois, 
31 October 1840.] 

Dear Sir: Your note of yesterday is received. In the diffi- 
culty between us of which you speak, you say you think I 
was the aggressor. I do not think I was. You say my 
"words imported insult." I meant them as a fair set-off to 
your own statements, and not otherwise; and in that light 
alone I now wish you to understand them. You ask for my 
present "feelings on the subject." I entertain no unkind 
feelings to you, and none of any sort upon the subject, ex- 
cept a sincere regret that I permitted myself to get into such 
an altercation. 



[From a letter to John T. Stuart, Springfield, Illinois, 
23 January, 1841.] 

For not giving you a general summary of news, you must 
pardon me; it is not in my power to do so. I am now the 
most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally dis- 
tributed to the whole human family, there would not be one 
cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better, 
I cannot tell ; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as 
I am is impossible ; I must die or be better, it appears to me. 
The matter you speak of on my account you may attend to as 
you say, unless you shall hear of my condition forbidding it. 
I say this because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any 

28 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I 
could be myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge 
Logan. I can write no more. 



[From a letter to Miss Mary Speed, dated Bloomington, 
Illinois, 27 September 1841.] 

By the way, a fine example was presented on board the 
boat for contemplating the effect of condition upon human 
happiness. A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in 
different parts of Kentucky, and was taking them to a farm 
in the South. They were chained six and six together. A 
small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this 
fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient 
distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung 
together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line. In 
this condition they were being separated forever from the 
scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and 
mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them from 
their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery, 
where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless 
and unrelenting than any other where; and yet amid all 
these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, 
they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures 
on board. One whose offense for which he had been sold 
was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost 
continually, and the others danced, sang, cracked jokes, and 
played various games with cards from day to day. How , 
true it is that "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," or 
in other words, that he renders the worst of human condi- 
tions tolerable, while he permits the best to be nothing better 
than tolerable. 



29 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, Illinois, 
3 January 1842.] 

My dear Speed: Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest 
solicitude for the success of the enterprise you are engaged 
in, I adopt this as the last method I can adopt to aid you, 
in case (which God forbid!) you shall need any aid. I do 
not place what I am going to say on paper because I can say 
it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, were 
I to say it orally before we part, most likely you would for- 
get it at the very time when it might do you some good. As 
I think it reasonable that you will feel very badly some time 
between this and the final consummation of your purpose, it 
is intended that you shall read this just at such a time. 
Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel very badly yet, 
is because of three special causes added to the general one 
which I shall mention. 

The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous 
temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you 
personally, and what you have told me concerning your 
mother at various times, and concerning your brother Will- 
iam at the time his wife died. The first special cause is 
your exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my 
experience clearly proves to be very severe on defective 
nerves. The second is the absence of all business and con- 
versation of friends, which might divert your mind, give it 
occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will 
sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to 
the bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near 
approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feel- 
ings concentrate. 

If from all these causes you shall escape and go through 
triumphantly, without another "twinge of the soul," I shall 

30 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

be most happily but most egregiously deceived. If^ on the 
contrary, you shall, as I expect you will at some time, be 
agonized and distressed, let me, who have some reason to 
speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to 
ascribe it to the causes I have mentioned, and not to some 
false and ruinous suggestion of the Devil. 

"But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every 
one engaged in a like undertaking.^" By no means. The 
particular causes, to a greater or less extent perhaps, do 
apply in all cases; but the general one, — nervous debility, 
which is the key and conductor of all the particular ones, 
and without which they would be utterly harmless, — though 
it does pertain to you, does not pertain to one in a thousand. 
It is out of this that the painful difference between you and 
the mass of the world springs. 

I know what the painful point with you is at all times 
when you are unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do 
not love her as you should. What nonsense ! How came 
you to court her P Was it because you thought she deserved 
it, and that you had given her reason to expect it.^ 
What earthly consideration would you take to find her scout- 
ing and despising you, and giving herself up to another? 
But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you 
cannot bring it home to your feelings. 

I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to 
write by every mail. 



[Letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, Illinois, 
3 February 1842.] 

Dear Speed: Your letter of the 25th January came to 
hand to-day. You well know that I do not feel my own sor- 
rows much more keenly than I do yours, when I know of 

31 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by what you 
wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you 
wrote. Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with 
you now than ever^ not that I am less your friend than ever, 
but because I ho]3e and believe that your present anxiety and 
distress about her health and her life must and will forever 
banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt 
as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once 
and forever be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment 
that the Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly 
for that object);, surely nothing can come in their stead to fill 
their immeasurable measure of misery. Why, Speed, if you 
did not love her, although you might not wish her death, you 
would most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point 
is no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwell- 
ing upon it is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, 
you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suffered on 
that point, and how tender I am upon it. You know I do 
not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of "hypo" since 
you left; even better than I was along in the fall. I have 

seen but once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I 

said nothing to her about what we spoke of. 



[Letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, Illinois, 
13 February 1842.] 

Dear Speed: Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three 
or four days ago. When this shall reach you, you will have 
been Fanny's husband several days. You know my desire 
to befriend you is everlasting; that I will never cease while 
I know how to do anything. But you will always hereafter 
be on ground that I have never occupied, and consequently;, 
if advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly 
hope, however, that you will never again need any comfort 

32 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

from abroad. ... I think, if I were yon, in case my 
mind were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. I 
would immediately engage in some business, or go to making 
preparations for it, which would be the same thing. If you 
went through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient 
composure not to excite alarm in any present, you are safe 
beyond question, and in two or three months, to say the most, 
will be the happiest of men. 



[From an address before the Springfield Washingtonian 
temperance society, 22 February 184-2,] 

Although the temperance cause has been in progress for 
near twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now 
being crowned with a degree of success hitherto unparal- 
leled. . . . 

For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. 
That that success is so much greater now than heretofore is 
doubtless owing to rational causes ; and if we would have it 
continue, we shall do well to inquire what those causes are. 

The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intem- 
perance has somehow or other been erroneous. Either the 
champions engaged or the tactics they adopted have not 
been the most proper. These champions for the most part 
have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between 
these and the mass of mankind there is a want of approach- 
ability, if the term be admissible, partially, at least, fatal to 
their success. They are supposed to have no sympathy of 
feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their 
object to convince and persuade. 

And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives 
to men of these classes other than those they profess to act 
upon. The preacher, it is said, advocates temperance be- 
cause he is a fanatic, and desires a union of the church and 

S3 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

state; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of hearing him- 
self speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when 
one who has long been known as a victim of intemperance 
bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears before 
his neighbors "clothed and in his right mind," a redeemed 
specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with tears of 
j oy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, 
now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and 
starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife 
long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, 
now restored to health, happiness, and a renewed affection ; 
and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved to be done ; 
how simple his language ! — there is a logic and an eloquence 
in it that few with human feelings can resist. 

In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of 
champions that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, 
owing. But, had the old-school champions themselves been 
of the most wise selecting, was their system of tactics the 
most j udicious ? It seems to me it was not. Too much de- 
nunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was in- 
dulged in. This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It 
was impolitic, because it is not much in the nature of man to 
be driven to anything ; still less to be driven about that which 
is exclusively his own business; and least of all where such 
driving is to be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary 
interest or burning appetite. When the dram-seller and 
drinker were incessantly told — not in accents of entreaty 
and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an 
erring brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema and 
denunciation with which the lordly judge often groups to- 
gether all the crimes of the felon's life, and thrusts them in 
his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon him — that 
they were the authors of all the vice and misery and crime in 
the land ; that they were the manufacturers and material of 

34 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

all the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the 
earth; that their houses were the workshojis of the devil; and 
that their persons should be shunned by all the good and vir- 
tuous as moral pestilences — I say, when they were told all 
this, and in this way, it is not wonderful that they were slow, 
very slow, to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, 
and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and cry 
against themselves. 

To have expected them to do otherwise than they did — to 
have expected them not to meet denunciation with denun- 
ciation, crimination with crimination, and anathema with 
anathema — was to expect a reversal of human nature, which 
is God's decree and can never be reversed. 

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, 
persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be 
adopted. It is an old and a true maxim "that a drop of 
honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." So with 
men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince 
him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of 
honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the 
great highroad to his reason, and which, when once gained, 
you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of 
the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a 
just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judg- 
ment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be 
shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, 
close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and though 
your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest 
lance, harder than steel, and sharper than steel can be made, 
and though you throw it with more than herculean force and 
precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to 
penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such 
is man, and so must he be understood by those who would 
lead him, even to his own best interests. 

35 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reform- 
ers fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were 
utterly incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and 
damned without remedy in order that the grace of temper- 
ance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all man- 
kind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this 
something so repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so 
cold-blooded and feelingless, that it never did nor ever can 
enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. We could not 
love the man who taught it — we could not hear him with 
patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, 
the generous man could not adopt it — it could not mix with 
his blood. It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing 
fathers and brothers overboard to lighten the boat for our 
security, that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest 
meanness of the thing. And besides this, the benefits of a 
reformation to be effected by such a system were too remote 
in point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few 
can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none 
will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for 
us ; and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very 
little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the same 
time doing something for ourselves. 

What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, to ask 
or expect a whole community to rise up and labor for the 
temporal happiness of others, after themselves shall be con- 
signed to the dust, a majority of which community take no 
pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare at no 
more distant day ! Great distance in either time or space 
has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human 
mind. Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after 
we shall be dead and gone are but little regarded even in our 
own cases, and much less in the cases of others. Still, in 
addition to this there is something so ludicrous in promises 

36 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of good or threats of evil a great way off as to render the 
whole subject with which they are connected easily turned 
into ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you are stealings 
Paddy; if you don't you '11 pay for it at the day of judg- 
ment." "Be the powers, if ye '11 credit me so long I '11 take 
another jist." 

Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good 
the good of the whole demands? Shall he who cannot do 
much be for that reason excused if he do nothing? "But," 
says one, "what good can I do by signing the pledge? I 
never drink, even without signing." This question has 
already been asked and answered more than a million of 
times. Let it be answered once more. For the man sud- 
denly or in any other way to break off from the use of drams, 
who has indulged in them for a long course of years, and 
until his appetite for them has grown ten- or a hundred-fold 
stronger, and more craving than any natural ajDpetite can 
be, requires a most powerful moral effort. In such an un- 
dertaking he needs every moral support and influence that 
can 230ssibly be brought to his aid and thrown around him. 
And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken from 
whatever argument might rise in his mind to lure him to his 
backsliding. When he casts his eyes around him, he should 
be able to see all that he respects, all that he admires, all that 
he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward, and 
none beckoning him back to his former miserable "wallowing 
in the mire." 

But it is said by some that men will think und act for 
themselves ; that none will disuse spirits or anything else be- 
cause his neighbors do ; and that moral influence is not that 
powerful engine contended for. Let us examine this. Let 
me ask the man who could maintain this position most stiffly, 
what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sun- 
day and sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon 

37 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

his head? Not a trifle, I '11 venture. And why not? 
There would be nothing irreligious in it, nothing immoral, 
nothing uncomfortable — then why not? Is it not because 
there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? 
Then it is the influence of fashion ; and what is the influence 
of fashion but the influence that other people's actions have 
on our actions — the strong inclination each of us feels to do 
as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is the influence of 
fashion confined to any particular thing or class of things ; 
it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us make 
it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the temper- 
ance cause as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to 
church, and instances will be just as rare in the one case as 
the other. 

"But,'* say some^ "we are no drunkards, and we shall not 
acknowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunk- 
ards' society, whatever our influence might be." Surely no 
Christian will adhere to this objection. If they believe as 
they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take on him- 
self the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignomini- 
ous death for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submis- 
sion to the infinitely lesser condescension, for the temporal, 
and perhaps eternal, salvation of a large, erring, and unfor- 
tunate class of their fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescen- 
sion very great. In my judgment such of us as have never 
fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appe- 
tite than from any mental or moral superiority over those 
who have. Indeed, I believe if we take habitual drunkards 
as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advan- 
tageous comparison with those of any other class. There 
seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and 
warm-blooded to fall into this vice — the demon of intemper- 
ance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of 
genius and of generosity. What one of us but can call to 

38 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

mind some relative, more promising in youth than all his 
f ellows_, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity ? He ever 
seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian angel of death, 
commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born of 
every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating 
career? In that arrest all can give aid that will; and who 
shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as 
human breath has ever blown he keeps our fathers, our 
brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains of 
moral death. To all the living everywhere we cry, ''Come 
sound the moral trump, that these may rise and ctand up an 
exceeding great army." "Come from the four winds, O 
breath ! and breathe upon these slain that they may live." 
If the relative grandeur of revolutions shall be estimated by 
the great amount of human misery they alleviate, and the 
small amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the grand- 
est the world shall ever have seen. 

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. 
It has given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding 
that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has 
found a solution of the long-mooted problem as to the capa- 
bility of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which 
has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the uni- 
versal liberty of mankind. But, with all these glorious 
results, past, present, and to come, it had its evils too. It 
breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire ; and 
long, long after, the orphan's cry and the widow's wail con- 
tinued to break the sad silence that ensued. These were the 
price, the inevitable price, paid for the blessings it bought. 

Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall 
find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, 
a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more 
disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it no orphans 
starving, no widows weeping. By it, none wounded in f eel- 

39 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ing, none injured in interest; even the dram-maker and 
dram-seller will have glided into other occupations so gradu- 
ally as never to have felt the change^ and vrill stand ready to 
join all others in the universal song of gladness. And what 
a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom ; with such 
an aid its march cannot fail to be on and on^ till every son 
of earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching 
draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day when — all appe- 
tites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matters subjected — 
mind, all conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch 
of the world. Glorious consummation ! Hail, fall of fury ! 
Reign of reason, all hail ! 

And when the victory shall be complete, — when there shall 
be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, — how proud 
the title of that land which may truly claim to be the birth- 
place and the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have 
ended in that victory. How nobly distinguished that people 
who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the 
political and moral freedom of their species. 

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth- 
day of Washington ; we are met to celebrate this day. Wash- 
ington is the mightiest name of earth — long since mightiest 
in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reforma- 
tion. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. 
To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Wash- 
ington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn 
awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor 
leave it shining on. 



[Letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, 25 February 1842.] 

Dear Speed: I received yours of the 12th written the day 
you went down to William's place, some days since, but de- 

40 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

layed answering it till I should receive the promised one of 
the l6th^ which came last night. I opened the letter with 
intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so_, that^ although 
it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a 
distance of ten hours, become calm. 

I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I 
are peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, 
from the time I received your letter of Saturday, that the 
one of Wednesday was never to come, and yet it did come, 
and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone and 
handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think 
the term preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than 
when you wrote the last one before. You had so obviously 
improved at the very time I so much fancied you would have 
grown worse. You say that something indescribably horri- 
ble and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that 
three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves 
once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. 
Nor should you become impatient at their being even very 
slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear 
that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is 
never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it 
will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now 
have no doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you 
and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that 
anything earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as 
you may be, no woman could do more to realize them than 
that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate 
her through my imagination, it would appear ridiculous to 
you that any one should for a moment think of being un- 
happy with her. My old father used to have a saying that 
"If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it 
occurs to me that if the bargain you have just closed can 
possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant 

41 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

one for applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any 
effort picture. 

[Letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, 27 March 1842.] 

Dear Speed: Yours of the 10th instant was received three 
or four days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you 
the pleasure its contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. 
As to your farm matter, I have no sympathy with you. I 
have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and consequently have 
not studied the sub j ect enough to be much interested with it. 
I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased 
with it. But on that other subj ect, to me of the most intense 
interest whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to 
withhold my sympathy from you. It cannot be told how it 
now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are "far happier 
than you ever expected to be." That much I know is enough. 
I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, 
at least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds 
them all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond 
the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me to 
read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total 
sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 
1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely 
happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still 
unhappy whom I have contributed to make so. That still 
kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for even wish- 
ing to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a 
large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, 
and on her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having en- 
joyed the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that. 

You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched 
you ever since the commencement of your affair; and al- 
though I am almost confident it is useless, I cannot forbear 

42 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

once more to say that I think it is even yet possible for your 
spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they 
should, don't fail to remember that they cannot long remain 
so. One thing I can tell you which I know you will be glad 

to hear, and that is that I have seen and scrutinized 

her feelings as well as I could, and am fully convinced she 
is far happier now than she has been for the last fifteen 
months past. 

You will see by the last "Sangamon Journal" that I made 
a temperance speech on the 22d of February, which I claim 
that Fanny and you shall read as an act of charity to me; 
for I cannot learn that anybody else has read it, or is likely 
to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall deem it a 
sufficient compliance with mj request if one of you listens 
while the other reads it. . . . 

The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it 
was so dry, and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at 
the first attempt to handle it. The juice that mashed out of 
it stained a place in the letter, which I mean to preserve and 
cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be sent. My 
renewed good wishes to her in particular, and generally to 
all such of your relations who know me. 

[From a letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, Illinois, 

4 July 1842.] 

As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely 
you know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will 
not labor to convince you. True, that subject is painful to 
me ; but it is not your silence, or the silence of all the world, 
that can make me forget it. I acknowledge the correctness 
of your advice too ; but before I resolve to do the one thing 
or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own ability to 
keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you 

43 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

know I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my 
character; that gem I lost — how and where you know too 
well. I have not yet regained it; and until I do, I cannot 
trust myself in any matter of much importance. I believe 
now that had you understood my case at the time as well as 
I understood yours afterward, by the aid you would have 
given me I should have sailed through clear, but that does 
not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the 
like of that again. 

You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to 
me for your present happiness. I am pleased with that 
acknowledgment. But a thousand times more am I pleased 
to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness worthy of an 
acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there 
was any merit with me in the part I took in your difficulty ; 
I was drawn to it by a fate. If I would I could not have done 
less than I did. I always was superstitious; I believe God 
made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and 
you together, which union I have no doubt he had fore- 
ordained. Whatever he designs he will do for me yet. 
"Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" is my text 
just now. If, as you say, you have told Fanny all, I should 
have no objection to her seeing this letter, but for its refer- 
ence to our friend here : let her seeing it depend upon whether 
she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if she has 
not, do not let her. 

I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am 
so poor and make so little headway in the world, that I drop 
back in a month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's 
sowing. I should like to visit you again. I should like to 
see that "sis" of yours that was absent when I was there, 
though I suppose she would run away again if she were to 
hear I was coming. 



44 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[Memorandum to E. H. Merryman^ who acted as second 
for Lincoln when he was challenged by Jas. Shields, 
19 September 1842.] 

I did write the "Lost Townships" letter which appeared 
in the "Journal" of the 2d instant, but had no participation 
in any form in any other article alluding to you. I wrote 
that wholly for political effect — I had no intention of in- 
juring your personal or private character or standing as a 
man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not 
now think, that that article could produce or has produced 
that effect against you ; and had I anticipated such an effect 
I would have f oreborne to write it. And I will add that your 
conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been gen- 
tlemanly ; and that I had no personal pique against you, and 
no cause for any. 

If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what 
shall and what shall not be published. If nothing like this 
is done, the preliminaries of the fight are to be — 

First. Weapons : Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, 
precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the 
cavalry company at Jacksonville. 

Second. Position : A plank ten feet long, and from nine to 
twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the 
ground, as the line between us, which neither is to pass his 
foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the 
ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it, 
each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and 
three feet additional from the plank; and the passing of his 
own such line by either party during the fight shall be 
deemed a surrender of the contest. 

Third. Time : On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you 
can get it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of 
time than Friday evening at five o'clock. 

45 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton^ on the op- 
posite side of the river^ the particular spot to be agreed on 
by you. 

Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you 
are at liberty to make at your discretion ; but you are in no 
case to swerve from these rules^ or to pass beyond their 
limits. 



[From a letter to Joshua F. Speedy Springfield, 
4 (.?) October 1842.] 

I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but 
to say something on that subject which you know to be of 
such infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you 
endured from the first days of September till the middle of 
February you never tried to conceal from me, and I well 
understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely 
woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now 
than the day you married her I well know, for without you 
could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and 
the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your 
letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are you now in 
feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you 
are.''" From anybody but me this would be an impudent 
question, not to be tolerated ; but I know you will pardon it 
in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. 
I have sent my love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is 
getting tired of it. However, I venture to tender it again. 

[From a letter to Martin M. Morris, Springfield, Illinois, 

26 March 1843.] 

It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people 
of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, 

46 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

who have known me longest and best^ stick to me. It would 
astonish^ if not amuse^ the older citizens to learn that I (a 
stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on 
a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down here 
as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family 
distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, 
the strangest combination of church influence against me. 
Baker is a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with 
few exceptions got all that church. My wife has some rela- 
tions in the Presbyterian churches, and some with the Epis- 
copal churches ; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was 
set down as either the one or the other, while it was every- 
where contended that no Christian ought to go for me, be- 
cause I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, 
and had talked about fighting a duel. With all these things. 
Baker, of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of 
them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was 
right enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in 
the other, though they were very strong, it would be grossly 
untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a 
body, or were very near so. I only mean that those influ- 
ences levied a tax of a considerable per cent, upon my 
strength throughout the religious controversy. But enough 
of this. 

[From a letter to Johnston, Tremont, 18 April 1846.] 

I have not your letter now before me ; but, from memory, 
I think you ask me who is the author of the piece I sent you, 
and that you do so ask as to indicate a slight suspicion that I 
myself am the author. Beyond all question, I am not the 
author. I would give all I am worth, and go in debt, to be 
able to write so fine a piece as I think that is. Neither do I 
know who is the author. I met it in a straggling form in a 

47 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

newspaper last summer_, and I remember to have seen it once 
before^ about fifteen years ago^ and this is all I know about 
it. The piece of poetry of my own which I alluded to, I 
was led to write under the following circumstances. In the 
fall of 1844, thinking I might aid some to carry the State of 
Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighborhood in that 
State in which I was raised, where my mother and only sister 
were buried, and from which I had been absent about fifteen 
years. That part of the country is, within itself, as un- 
poetical as any s23ot of the earth; but still, seeing it and its 
objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were 
certainly poetry; though whether my expression of those 
feelings is poetry is quite another question. When I got to 
writing, the change of subject divided the thing into four 
little divisions or cantos, the first only of which I send you 
now, and may send the others hereafter. 

My childhood's home I see again. 

And sadden with the view; 
And still, as memory crowds my brain^ 

There 's pleasure in it too. 

O Memory ! thou midway world 

'Twixt earth and paradise. 
Where things decayed and loved ones lost 

In dreamy shadows rise. 

And, freed from all that 's earthly vile^ 

Seem hallowed, pure, and bright. 
Like scenes in some enchanted isle 

All bathed in liquid light. 

As dusky mountains please the eye 

When twilight chases day; 
As bugle-notes that, passing by. 

In distance die away ; 

48 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

As leaving some grand waterfall. 

We, lingering, list its roar — 
So memory will hallow all 

We've known, but know no more. 

Near twenty years have passed away 

Since here I bid farewell 
To woods and fields, and scenes of play. 

And playmates loved so well. 

Where many were, but few remain 

Of old familiar things; 
But seeing them, to mind again 

The lost and absent brings. 

The friends I left that parting day. 

How changed, as time has fled ! 
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray. 

And half of all are dead. 

I hear the loved survivors tell 

How nought from death could save. 

Till every sound appears a knell. 
And every spot a grave. 

I range the fields with pensive tread. 

And pace the hollow rooms, 
And feel (companion of the dead) 

I 'm living in the tombs. 



[From a letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, 
22 October 1846.] 

We have another boy, born the 1 0th of March. He is very 
much such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer 
order. Bob is "short and low," and I expect always will be. 

49 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

He talks very plainly, — almost as plainly as anybody. He 
is quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of 
the little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than 
ever after. He has a great deal of that sort of mischief 
that is the offspring of such animal spirits. Since I began 
this letter, a messenger came to tell me Bob was lost; but by 
the time I reached the house his mother had found him and 
had him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away 
again. 

[From a letter to Johnston, Springfield, 25 February 

1847.] 

Dear Johnston: Yours of the 2d of December was duly 
delivered to me by Mr. Williams. To say the least, I am 
not at all displeased with your proposal to publish the poetry, 
or doggerel, or whatever else it may be called, which I sent 
you. I consent that it may be done, together with the third 
canto, which I now send you. Whether the prefatory re- 
marks in my letter shall be published with the verses, I leave 
entirely to your discretion; but let names be suppressed by 
all means. I have not sufficient hope of the verses attracting 
any favorable notice to tempt me to risk being ridiculed for 
having written them. 

[Letter to William H. Herndon, Washington, D. C, 
13 December 1847.] 

Dear William : Your letter, advising me of the receipt of 
our fee in the bank case, is just received, and I don't expect 
to hear another as good a piece of news from Springfield 
while I am away. I am under no obligations to the bank; 
and I therefore wish you to buy bank certificates, and pay 
my debt there, so as to pay it with the least money possible. 

50 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I would as soon you should buy them of Mr. Ridgely, or any 
other person at the bank^ as of any one else, provided you 
can get them as cheaply. I suppose, after the bank debt 
shall be paid, there will be some money left, out of which I 
would like to have you pay Lavely and Stout twenty dollars, 
and Priest and somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars, for ma- 
terials got for house-painting. If there shall still be a.iy 
left, keep it till you see or hear from me. 

I shall begin sending documents so soon as I can get them. 
I wrote you yesterday about a "Congressional Globe." As 
you are all so anxious for me to distinguish myself, I have 
concluded to do so before long. 



[From a letter to William H. Herndon, Washington, 
8 January 1848.] 

Dear William: Your letter of December 27 was received 
a day or two ago. I am much obliged to you for the trouble 
you have taken, and promise to take in my little business 
there. As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang of 
the House I made a little speech two or three days ago on a 
post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking 
here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as 
badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in court. 
I expect to make one within a week or two, in which I hope 
to succeed well enough to wish you to see it. 

It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some 
who desire that I should be reelected. I most heartily thank 
them for their kind partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay 
said of the annexation of Texas, that "personally I would 
not object" to a reelection, although I thought at the time, 
and still think, it would be quite as well for me to return to 
the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration 

51 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

that I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to 
deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, 
and to keep the district from going to the enemy, than for 
any cause personal to myself ; so that, if it should so happen 
that nobody else wishes to be elected, I could not refuse the 
people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself 
as a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to enter 
me, is what my word and honor forbid. 



[From a speech in the house of representatives, Washing- 
ton, 12 January 1848. Lincoln's first printed speech in 
congress.] 

As to the country now in question [Mexico] we bought it 
of France in 1803, and sold it to Spain in 1819^ according to 
the President's statements. After this, all Mexico, includ- 
ing Texas, revolutionized against Spain; and still later 
Texas revolutionized against Mexico. In my view, just so 
far as she carried her resolution by obtaining the actual, will- 
ing or unwilling, submission of the people, so far the coun- 
try was hers, and no farther. Now, sir, for the purpose of 
obtaining the very best evidence as to whether Texas had 
actually carried her revolution to the place where the hostili- 
ties of the present war commenced, let the President answer 
the interrogatories I proposed, as before mentioned, or some 
other similar ones. Let him answer fully, fairly, and can- 
didly. Let him answer with facts and not with arguments. 
Let him remember he sits where Washington sat, and so re- 
membering, let him answer as Washington would answer. 
As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, be evaded, 
so let him attempt no evasion — no equivocation. And if, so 
answering, he can show that the soil was ours where the first 
blood of the war was shed, — that it was not within an inhab- 

52 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ited country, or, if within such, that the inhabitants had sub- 
mitted themselves to the civil authority of Texas or of the 
United States, and that the same is true of the site of Fort 
Brown, — then I am with him for his justification. In that 
case I shall be most happy to reverse the vote I gave the 
other day. I have a selfish motive for desiring that the 
President may do this — I expect to gain some votes, in con- 
nection with the war, which, without his so doing, will be of 
doubtful propriety in my own judgment, but which will be 
free from the doubt if he does so. But if he cannot or will 
not do this, — if on any pretense or no pretense he shall re- 
fuse or omit it — then I shall be fully convinced of what I 
more than suspect already — that he is deeply conscious of 
being in the wrong ; that he feels the blood of this war, like 
the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him; that 
originally having some strong motive — what, I will not stop 
now to give my opinion concerning — to involve the two coun- 
tries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the 
public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, 
— that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood — 
that serpent's eye that charms to destroy, — he plunged into 
it, and has swept on and on till, disappointed in his calcula- 
tion of the ease with which Mexico might be subdued, he now 
finds himself he knows not where. How like the half-insane 
mumbling of a fever dream is the whole war part of his late 
message ! At one time telling us that Mexico has nothing 
whatever that we can get but territory; at another showing 
us how we can support the war by levying contributions on 
Mexico. At one time urging the national honor, the security 
of the future, the prevention of foreign interference, and 
even the good of Mexico herself as among the objects of the 
war ; at another telling us that *'to reject indemnity, by refus- 
ing to accept a cession of territory, would be to abandon all 
our just demands, and to wage the war bearing all its ex- 

58 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

penses, without a purpose or definite object." So then this 
national honor^ security of the future^ and everything but 
territorial indemnity may be considered the no-purposes and 
indefinite objects of the war! But, having it now settled 
that territorial indemnity is the only object, we are urged to 
seize, by legislation here, all that he was content to take a 
few months ago, and the whole province of Lower California 
to boot, and to still carry on the war — to take all we are fight- 
ing for, and still fight on. Again, the President is resolved 
under all circumstances to have full territorial indemnity 
for the expenses of the war ; but he forgets to tell us how we 
are to get the excess after those expenses shall have sur- 
passed the value of the whole of the Mexican territory. So 
again, he insists that the separate national existence of Mex- 
ico shall be maintained ; but he does not tell us how this can 
be done, after we shall have taken all her territory. Lest 
the questions I have suggested be considered speculative 
merely, let me be indulged a moment in trying to show they 
are not. The war has gone on some twenty months ; for the 
expenses of which, together with an inconsiderable old score, 
the President now claims about one half of the Mexican 
territory, and that by far the better half, so far as concerns 
our ability to make anything out of it. It is comparatively 
uninhabited ; so that we could establish land offices in it, and 
raise some money in that way. But the other half is already 
inhabited, as I understand it, tolerably densely for the nature 
of the country, and all its lands, or all that are valuable, 
already appropriated as private property. How then are 
we to make anything out of these lands with this encum- 
brance on them.^ or how remove the encumbrance? I sup- 
pose no one would say we should kill the people, or drive 
them out, or make slaves of them; or confiscate their prop- 
erty. How, then, can we make much out of this part of the 
territory .f* If the prosecution of the war has in expenses 

54 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

already equaled the better half of the country, how long its 
future prosecution will be in equaling the less valuable half 
is not a speculative, but a practical, question, pressing closely 
upon us. And yet it is a question which the President seems 
never to have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the 
war and securing peace, the President is equally wandering 
and indefinite. First, it is to be done by a more vigorous 
prosecution of the war in the vital parts of the enemy's coun- 
try ; and after apparently talking himself tired on this point, 
the President drops down into a half-despairing tone, and 
tells us that "with a people distracted and divided by con- 
tending factions, and a government subject to constant 
changes by successive revolutions, the continued success of 
our arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace." Then he 
suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexican people to 
desert the counsels of their own leaders, and, trusting in our 
protestations, to set up a government from which we can 
secure a satisfactory peace; telling us that "this may become 
the only mode of obtaining such a peace." But soon he falls 
into doubt of this too ; and then drops back onto the already 
half -abandoned ground of "more vigorous prosecution." All 
this shows that the President is in nowise satisfied with his 
own positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to 
argue us into it he argues himself out of it, then seizes an- 
other and goes through the same process, and then, confused 
at being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the old 
one again, which he has some time before cast off. His 
mind, taxed beyond its power, is running hither and thither, 
like some tortured creature on a burning surface, finding no 
position on which it can settle down and be at ease. 

Again, it is a singular omission in this message that it no- 
where intimates when the President expects the war to ter- 
minate. At its beginning. General Scott was by this same 
President driven into disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimat- 

55 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ing that peace could not be conquered in less than three or 
four months. But now^ at the end of about twenty months, 
during which time our arms have given us the most splendid 
successes, every department and every part, land and water, 
officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that 
men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever be- 
fore been thought men could not do — after all this, this same 
President gives a long message, without showing us that as 
to the end he himself has even an imaginary conception. As 
I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a be- 
wildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God 
grant he may be able to show there is not something about 
his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity. 



[From a letter to William H. Herndon, Washington, 
1 February 1848.] 

Dear William : Your letter of the 1 9th ultimo was received 
last night, and for which I am much obliged. The only 
thing in it that I wish to talk to you at once about is that 
because of my vote for Ashmun's amendment you fear that 
you and I disagree about the war. I regret this, not because 
of any fear we shall remain disagreed after you have read 
this letter, but because if you misunderstand I fear other 
good friends may also. That vote affirms that the war was 
unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the 
President; and I will stake my life that if you had been in 
my place you would have voted just as I did. Would you 
have voted what you felt and knew to be a lie .^^ I know you 
would not. Would you have gone out of the House — 
skulked the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one 
vote, you would have had to skulk many more before the end 
of the session. Richardson's resolutions, introduced before 
I made any move or gave any vote upon the subj ect, make the 

56 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

direct question of the justice of the war; so that no man can 
be silent if he would. You are compelled to speak ; and your 
only alternative is to tell the truth or a lie. I cannot doubt 
which you would do. 



[Letter to William H. Herndon, Washington, 2 February 

1848.] 

Dear William: I just take my pen to say that Mr Ste- 
phens, of Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive 
man, with a voice like Logan's, has just concluded the very 
best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My old with- 
ered dry eyes are full of tears yet. 

If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people 
shall see a good many copies of it. 

[Letter to Archibald Williams, Washington, 30 April 1848.] 

Dear Williams: I have not seen in the papers any evidence 
of a movement to send a delegate from your circuit to the 
June convention. I wish to say that I think it all-important 
that a delegate should be sent. Mr. Clay's chance for an 
election is just no chance at all. He might get New York, 
and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not now, be- 
cause he must now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had 
then, and in addition the fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, 
Iowa, and Wisconsin. I know our good friend Browning is 
a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear he is favor- 
ing his nomination. If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and 
try if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment, count the 
v^otes necessary to elect him. 

In my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor; 
and we cannot elect him without a nomination. Therefore 
don't fail to send a delegate. 

57 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[From a letter to the Rev. J. M. Peck, Washington, 
21 May 1848.] 

Dear Sir: On last evening I received a copy of the "Belle- 
ville Advocate," with the appearance of having been sent by 
a private hand ; and inasmuch as it contained your oration on 
the occasion of the celebrating of the battle of Buena Vista, 
and is post-marked at Rock Spring, I cannot doubt that it is 
to you I am indebted for this courtesy. 

I own that finding in the oration a labored justification of 
the administration on the origin of the Mexican war disap- 
pointed me, because it is the first effort of the kind I have 
known made by one appearing to me to be intelligent, right- 
minded, and impartial. It is this disappointment that 
prompts me to address you briefly on the subject. I do not 
propose any extended review. I do not quarrel with facts — 
brief exhibition of facts. I presume it is correct so far as 
it goes; but it is so brief as to exclude some facts quite as 
material in my judgment to a just conclusion as any it in- 
cludes. 

Although you say at one point "I shall briefly exhibit 
facts, and leave each person to perceive the just application 
of the principles already laid down to the case in hand," you 
very soon get to making applications yourself, — in one in- 
stance as follows: "In view of all the facts, the conviction 
to my mind is irresistible that the Government of the United 
States committed no aggression on Mexico." Not in view 
of all the facts. There are facts which you have kept out 
of view. It is a fact that the United States army in march- 
ing to the Rio Grande marched into a peaceful Mexican set- 
tlement, and frightened the inhabitants away from their 
homes and their growing crops. It is a fact that Fort 
Brown, opposite Matamoras, was built by that army within 

58 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a Mexican cotton-field_, on which at the time the army 
reached it a young cotton crop was growings and which crop 
was wholly destroyed and the field itself greatly and perma- 
mently injured by ditches^ embankments, and the like. It 
is a fact that when the Mexicans captured Captain Thornton 
and his command, they found and captured them within an- 
other Mexican field. 

Now I wish to bring these facts to your notice, and to as- 
certain what is the result of your reflections upon them. If 
you deny that they are facts, I think I can furnisA proof 
which shall convince you that you are mistaken. If you 
admit that they are facts, then I shall be obliged for a refer- 
ence to any law of language, law of States, law of nations, 
law of morals, law of religions, any law, human or divine, 
in which an authority can be found for saying those facts 
constitute "no aggression." 

Possibly you consider those acts too small for notice. 
Would you venture to so consider them had they been com- 
mitted by any nation on earth against the humblest of our 
people? I know you would not. Then I ask, is the pre- 
cept, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them" obsolete.'' of no force.'' of no applica- 
tion? 

I shall be pleased if you can find leisure to write me. 

[Letter to Archibald Williams, Washington, 12 June 1848.] 

Dear Williams: On my return from Philadelphia, where 
I had been attending the nomination of "Old Rough," I 
found your letter in a mass of others wliich had accumulated 
in my absence. By many, and often, it had been said they 
would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the 
deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opin- 
ion we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious triumph. 

59 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

One unmistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with 
us — Barnburners^ Native Americans^ Tyler men, disap- 
pointed office-seeking Locofocos_, and the Lord knows what. 
This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way 
the wind blows. Some of the sanguine men have set down 
all the States as certain for Taylor but Illinois, and it as 
doubtful. Cannot something be done even in Illinois.'* 
Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It 
turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to 
them the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on 
which they are doomed to be hanged themselves. 



[From a letter to William H. Herndon, Washington, 
22 June 1848.] 

As to the young men. You must not wait to be brought 
forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose 
that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be 
hunted up and pushed forward by older men.^ You young 
men get together and form a "Rough and Ready Club," and 
have regular meetings and speeches. Take in everybody 
you can get. Harrison Grimsley, L. A. Enos, Lee Kimball, 
and C. W. Matheny will do to begin the thing; but as you 
go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, 
whether just of age or a little under age, — Chris. Logan, 
Reddick Ridgely, Lewis Zwizler, and hundreds such. Let 
every one play the part he can play best, — some speak, some 
sing, and all "holler." Your meetings will be of evenings ; 
the older men, and the women, will go to hear you ; so that it 
will not only contribute to the election of "Old Zach," but 
will be an interesting pastime, and improving to the intel- 
lectual faculties of all engaged. Don't fail to do this. 



60 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a letter to William H. Herndon, Washington^ 
10 July 1848.] 

Dear William: Your letter covering the newspaper slips 
was received last night. The subject of that letter is ex- 
ceedingly painful to me ; and I cannot but think there is some 
mistake in your impression of the motives of the old men. 
I suppose I am now one of the old men ; and I declare, on my 
veracity _, which I think is good with you, that nothing could 
afford me more satisfaction than to learn that you and others 
of my young friends at home are doing battle in the contest, 
and endearing themselves to the people, and taking a stand 
far above any I have ever been able to reach in their admira- 
tion. I cannot conceive that other old men feel differently. 
Of course I cannot demonstrate what I say ; but I was young 
once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. 
I hardly know what to say. The way for a young man to 
rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting 
that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you 
that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any 
situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to 
keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he 
allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood 
over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feel- 
ing has not inj ured every person you have ever known to fall 
into it. 



[From a speech in the house of representatives, Washing- 
ton, 27 July 1848.] 

The other day one of the gentlemen from Georgia [Mr. 
Iverson], an eloquent man, and a man of learning, so far as 
I can judge, not being learned myself, came down upon us 

61 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

astonishingly. He spoke in what the "Baltimore American" 
calls the "scathing and withering style." At the end of his 
second severe flash I was struck blind^ and found myself i 
feeling with my fingers for an assurance of my continued 
existence, A little of the bone was left;, and I gradually re- 
vived. He eulogized Mr. Clay in high and beautiful terms, 
and then declared that we had deserted all our principles, 
and had turned Henry Clay out, like an old horse, to root. 
This is terribly severe. It cannot be answered by argument 
• — at least I cannot so answer it. I merely wish to ask the 
gentleman if the Whigs are the only party he can think of 
who sometimes turn old horses out to root. Is not a certain 
Martin Van Buren an old horse which your own party have 
turned out to root ? and is he not rooting a little to your dis- 
comfort about now} . . . But the gentleman from 
Georgia further says we have deserted all our principles, and 
taken shelter under General Taylor's military coat-tail, and 
he seems to think this is exceedingly degrading. Well, as 
his faith is, so be it unto him. But can he remember no 
other military coat-tail under which a certain other party 
have been sheltering for near a quarter of a century ? Has 
he no acquaintance with the ample military coat-tail of Gen- 
eral Jackson? Does he not know that his own party have 
run the five last presidential races under that coat-tail ? And 
that they are now running the sixth under the same cover? 
Yes, sir, that coat-tail was used not only for General Jackson 
himself, but has been clung to, with the grip of death, by 
every Democratic candidate since. You have never ven- 
tured, and dare not now venture, from under it. Your cam- 
paign papers have constantly been "Old Hickories," with 
rude likenesses of the old general upon them; hickory poles 
and hickory brooms your never-ending emblems; Mr. Polk 
himself was "Young Hickory," "Little Hickory," or some- 
thing so; and even now your campaign paper here is pro- 

62 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

claiming that Cass and Butler are of the true "Hickory 
stripe." Now^ sir, you dare not give it up. Like a horde 
of hungry ticks you have stuck to the tail of the Hermitage 
lion to the end of his life ; and you are still sticking to it, and 
drawing a loathsome sustenance from it, after he is dead. 
A fellow once advertised that he had made a discovery by 
which he could make a new man out of an old one, and have 
enough of the stuff left to make a little yellow dog. Just 
such a discovery has General Jackson's popularity been to 
you. You not only twice made President of him out of it, 
but you have had enough of the stuff left to make Presidents 
of several comparatively small men since; and it is your 
chief reliance now to make still another. 

Mr. Speaker, old horses and military coat-tails, or tails of 
any sort, are not figures of speech such as I would be the first 
to introduce into discussions here ; but as the gentleman from 
Georgia has thought fit to introduce them, he and you are 
welcome to all you have made, or can make by them. If you 
have any more old horses, trot them out; any more tails, just 
cock them and come at us. I repeat, I would not introduce 
this mode of discussion here; but I wish gentlemen on the 
other side to understand that the use of degrading figures 
is a game at which they may not find themselves able to take 
all the winnings. ["We give it up !"] Aye, you give it up, 
and well you may ; but for a very different reason from that 
which you would have us understand. The point — the 
power to hurt — of all figures consists in the truthfulness of 
their application ; and, understanding this, you may well give 
it up. They are weapons which hit you, but miss us. 

But in my hurry I was very near closing this subject of 
military tails before I was done with it. There is one entire 
article of the sort I have not discussed yet, — I mean the 
military tail you Democrats are now engaged in dovetailing 
into the great Michigander. Yes, sir; all his biographies 

63 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

(and they are legion) have him in hand^ tying him to a mili- 
tary tail^ like so many mischievous boys tying a dog to a blad- 
der of beans. True the material they have is very limited^ but 
they drive at it might and main. He zTivaded Canada with- 
out resistance, and he ow^vaded it without pursuit. As he 
did both under orders, I suppose there was to him neither 
credit nor discredit in them ; but they constitute a large part 
of the tail. He was not at Hull's surrender, but he was close 
by ; he was volunteer aid to General Harrison on the day of 
the battle of the Thames; and as you said in 1840 Harrison 
was picking huckleberries two miles off while the battle was 
fought, I suppose it is a just conclusion with you to say Cass 
was aiding Harrison to pick huckleberries. This is about 
all, except the mooted question of the broken sword. Some 
authors say he broke it; some say he threw it away, and some 
others, who ought to know, say nothing about it. Perhaps it 
would be a fair historical compromise to say, if he did not 
break it, he did not do anything else with it. 

By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military 
hero.^ Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk war I 
fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's 
career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's de- 
feat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's sur- 
render ; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. 
It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none 
to break ; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. 
If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in despera- 
tion; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went 
in advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I sur- 
passed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any 
live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a 
good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and al- 
though I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly 
say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should 

64 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ever conclude to dofF whatever our Democratic friends may 
suppose there is of black-cockade federalism about me^ and 
therefore they shall take me up as their candidate for the 
presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me, as they 
have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a mili- 
tary hero. 

Mr. Speaker, I adopt the suggestion of a friend, that 
General Cass is a general of splendidly successful charges 
— charges to be sure, not upon the public enemy, but upon 
the public treasury. He was Governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory, and ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs, from 
the 9th of October, 1813, till the 31st of July, 1831— a 
period of seventeen years, nine months, and twenty-two days. 
During this period he received from the United States treas- 
ury, for personal services and personal expenses, the aggre- 
gate sum of ninety-six thousand and twenty-eight dollars, 
being an average of fourteen dollars and seventy-nine cents 
per day for every day of the time. This large sum was 
reached by assuming that he was doing service at several dif- 
ferent places, and in several different capacities in the same 
place, all at the same time. By a correct analysis of his ac- 
counts during that period, the following propositions may 
be deduced: 

First, He was paid in three different capacities during the 
whole of the time; that is to say — (l) As governor's salary 
at the rate per year of $2000. (2) As estimated for office 
rent, clerk hire, fuel, etc., in superintendence of Indian af- 
fairs in Michigan, at the rate per year of $1500. (3) As 
compensation and expenses for various miscellaneous items 
of Indian service out of Michigan, an average per year of 
$625. 

Second. During part of the time — that is, from the 9th of 
October, 1813, to the 29th of May, 1822 — he was paid in 
four different capacities; that is to say, the three as above, 

65 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and, in addition thereto, the commutation of ten rations per 
day, amounting per year to $730. 

Third. During another part of the time — ^that is, from the 
beginning of 1822 to the 31st of July, 1831 — he was also 
paid in four different capacities ; that is to say, the first three, 
as above (the rations being dropped after the 29th of May, 
1822), and, in addition thereto, for superintending Indian 
Agencies at Piqua, Ohio ; Fort Wayne, Indiana ; and Chicago, 
Illinois, at the rate per year of $1500. It should be ob- 
served here that the last item, commencing at the beginning 
of 1822, and the item of rations, ending on the 29th of May, 
1822, lap on each other during so much of the time as lies 
between those two dates. 

Fourth. Still another part of the time — that is, from the 
S 1st of October, 1821, to the 29th of May, 1822 — he was 
paid in six different capacities ; that is to say, the three first, 
as above; the item of rations, as above; and, in addition 
thereto, another item of ten rations per day while at Wash- 
ington settling his accounts, being at the rate per year of 
$730; and also an allowance for expenses traveling to and 
from Washington, and while there, of $1022, being at the 
rate per year of $1793. 

Fifth. And yet during the little portion of the time which 
lies between the 1st of January, 1822, and the 29th of May, 
1822, he was paid in seven different capacities; that is to 
say, the six last mentioned, and also, at the rate of $1500 
per year, for the Piqua, Fort Wayne, and Chicago service, 
as mentioned above. 

These accounts have already been discussed some here; 
but when we are amongst them, as when we are in the Patent 
Office, we must peep about a good deal before we can see all 
the curiosities. I shall not be tedious with them. As to the 
large item of $1500 per year — amounting in the aggregate 
to $26,715 — for office rent, clerk hire, fuel, etc., I barely 

66 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

wish to remark that so far as I can discover in the public 
documents^ there is no evidence^ by word or inference, either 
from any disinterested witness or of General Cass himself, 
that he ever rented or kept a separate office, ever hired or 
kept a clerk, or even used any extra amount of fuel, etc., in 
consequence of his Indian services. Indeed, General Cass's 
entire silence in regard to these items, in his two long letters 
urging his claims upon the government, is, to my mind, 
almost conclusive that no such claims had any real existence. 
But I have introduced General Cass's accounts here chiefly 
to show the wonderful physical capacities of the man. They 
show that he not only did the labor of several men at the 
same time, but that he often did it at several places, many 
hundreds of miles apart, at the same time. And at eating, 
too, his capacities are shown to be quite as wonderful. From 
October, 1821, to May, 1822, he eat ten rations a day in 
Michigan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near 
five dollars' worth a day on the road between the two places ! 
And then there is an important discovery in his example — 
the art of being paid for what one eats, instead of having to 
pay for it. Hereafter if any nice young man should owe a 
bill which he cannot pay in any other way, he can just board 
it out. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard of the animal stand- 
ing in doubt between two stacks of hay and starving to death. 
The like of that would never happen to General Cass. 
Place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand 
stock-still midway between them, and eat them both at once, 
and the green grass along the line would be apt to suffer 
some, too, at the same time. By all means make him Presi- 
dent, gentlemen. He will feed you bounteously — if — if 
there is any left after he shall have helped himself. 



67 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to Thomas Lincoln^ Washington^ 24 December 

1848.] 

My dear Father: Your letter of the 7th was received night 
before last. I very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, 
which sum you say is necessary to save your land from sale. 
It is singular that you should have forgotten a judgment 
against you; and it is more singular that the plaintiff should 
have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you 
always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that 
amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you 
have not paid, or at least that you cannot prove that you have 
paid it. 

Give my love to mother and all the connections. 



[Note for law lecture written about 1 July 1850.] 

I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much 
material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, 
as in those wherein I have been moderately successful. The 
leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other 
calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which 
can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall 
behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, be- 
fore stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then 
be done. When you bring a common-law suit, if you have 
the facts for doing so, w:^ite the declaration at once. If a 
law point be involved, examine the books, and note the 
authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you 
are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defenses and 
pleas. In business not likely to be litigated, — ordinary col- 
lection cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like, — make 
all examinations of titles, and note them, and even draft 

68 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

orders and decrees in advance. This course has a triple ad- 
vantage; it avoids omissions and neglect^ saves your labor 
when once done, performs the labor out of court when you 
have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Ex- 
temporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. 
It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and 
faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring 
him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is 
not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too 
much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers 
of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of 
the law, his case is a failure in advance. 

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to com- 
promise whenever you can. Point out to them how tlie nom- 
inal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and 
waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior 
opportunity of being a good man. There will still be busi- 
ness enough. 

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcel}^ be 
found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a 
fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds 
in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and 
put money in his pocket ? A moral tone ought to be infused 
into the profession which should drive such men out of it. 

The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere ques- 
tion of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, 
fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbi- 
tant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never 
take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small 
retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than 
a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, 
as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for 
your client. And when you lack interest in the case the job 
will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. 

69 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then 
you will feel that you are working for something, and you 
are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a 
fee note — at least not before the consideration service is per- 
formed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty — negligence 
by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to 
refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail. 

There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are neces- 
sarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to 
what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and con- 
ferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable 
that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. 
Yet the impression is common, almost universal. Let no 
young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield 
to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events ; and 
if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, 
resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some 
other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which 
you do, in advance, consent to be a knave. 

[Letter to John D. Johnston, 2 January 1851.] 

Dear Johnston: Your request for eighty dollars I do not 
think it best to comply with now. At the various times when 
I have helped you a little you have said to me, "We can get 
along very well now" ; but in a very short time I find you in 
the same difficulty again. Now, this can only happen by 
some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think 
I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I 
doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole 
day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to 
work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does 
not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit 
of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly 

70 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

important to you, and still more so to your children, that you 
should break the habit. It is more important to them, be- 
cause they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle 
habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after 
they are in. 

You are now in need of some money ; and what I propose 
is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody 
who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys 
take charge of your things at home, prepare for a crop, and 
make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, 
or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get ; and, 
to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise 
you, that for every dollar you will, between this and the first 
of May, get for your own labor, either in monej or as your 
own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By 
this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you 
will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your 
work. In this I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or 
the lead mines, or the gold mines in California, but I mean for 
you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home 
in Coles County. Now, if you will do this, you will be soon 
out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that 
will keep you from getting in debt again. But, if I should 
now clear you out of debt, next year you would be just as 
deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place 
in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars. Then you value 
j^our place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with 
the oifer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars for four 
or five months' work. You say if I will furnish you the 
money you will deed me the land, and, if you don't pay the 
money back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense ! If 
you can't now live with the land, how will you then live with- 
out it ? You have alwaj^s been kind to me, and I do not mean 
to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow 

71 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

my advice, you will find it worth more than eighty times 
eighty dollars to you. 



[From a letter to John D. Johnston, Springfield, Illinois, 
12 January 1851.] 

You already know I desire that neither father nor mother 
shall be in want of any comfort, either in health or sickness, 
while they live; and I feel sure you have not failed to use 
my name, if necessary, to procure a doctor, or anything else 
for father in his present sickness. ... I sincerely hope 
father may recover his health, but at all events, tell him to 
remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and 
merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any 
extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers 
the hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man 
who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet 
now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than 
pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have 
a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before, and 
where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long 
to join them. 

Write to me again when you receive this. 



[Letter to John D. Johnston, Shelbyville, 4 November 

1851.] 

Dear Brother: When I came into Charleston day before 
yesterday, I learned that you are anxious to sell the land 
where you live and move to Missouri. I have been thinking 
of this ever since, and cannot but think such a notion is 
utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri better than 
here.f* Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more 

72 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

than here^ raise corn and wheat and oats without work? 
Will anybody there^ any more than here_, do your work for 
you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place 
than right where you are ; if you do not intend to go to work, 
you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling 
about from place to place can do no good. You have raised 
no crop this year; and what you really want is to sell the 
land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you 
have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a spot big 
enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the land you 
will spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half you will 
eat, drink, and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought. 
Now, I feel it my duty to have no hand in such a piece of 
foolery. I feel that it is so even on your own account, and 
particularly on mother's account. The eastern forty acres 
I intend to keep for mother while she lives ; if you will not 
cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her — at least, 
it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two 
forties she can let you have, and no thanks to me. Now, do 
not misunderstand this letter ; I do not write it in any unkind- 
ness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the 
truth, which truth is, you are destitute because you have idled 
away all your time. Your thousand pretenses for not get- 
ting along better are all nonsense; they deceive nobody but 
yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case. 

A word to mother. Chapman tells me he wants you to go 
and live with him. If I were you I would try it awhile. If 
you get tired of it (as I think you will not), you can return 
to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly to you, and 
I have no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant. 



7S 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Fragment written about 1 July 1854.] 

Equalit}'' in society alike beats inequality, whether the lat- 
ter be of the British aristocratic sort or of the domestic 
slavery sort. We know Southern men declare that their 
slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst us. How 
little they know whereof they speak ! There is no perma- 
nent class of hired laborers amongst us. Twenty-five years 
ago I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of yesterday 
labors on his own account to-day, and will hire others to 
labor for him to-morrow. Advancement — improvement in 
condition — is the order of things in a society of equals. As 
labor is the common burden of our race, so the effort of some 
to shift their share of the burden onto the shoulders of others 
is the great durable curse of the race. Originally a curse 
for transgression upon the whole race, when, as by slavery, 
it is concentrated on a part only, it becomes the double- 
refined curse of God upon his creatures. 

Free labor has the inspiration of hope ; pure slavery has no 
hope. The power of hope upon human exertion and happi- 
ness is wonderful. The slave-master himself has a concep- 
tion of it, and hence the system of tasks among slaves. The 
slave whom you cannot drive with the lash to break seventy- 
five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break 
a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will 
break you a hundred and fifty. You have substituted hope 
for the rod. And yet perhaps it does not occur to you that 
to the extent of your gain in the case, you have given up the 
slave system and adopted the free system of labor. 



74 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a speech delivered in reply to Senator Stephen A. 
Douglas at Peoria, Illinois, l6 October 1854.] 

About a month after the introduction of the bill [to give 
Nebraska and Kansas territorial governments] on the 
judge's own motion it is so amended as to declare the 
Missouri Compromise inoperative and void; and, sub- 
stantially, that the people who go and settle there may estab- 
lish slavery, or exclude it, as they may see fit. In this 
shape the bill passed both branches of Congress and became 
a law. 

This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The 
foregoing history may not be precisely accurate in every 
particular, but I am sure it is sufficiently so for all the use 
I shall attempt to make of it^ and in it we have before us the 
chief material enabling us to judge correctly whether the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong. I 
think, and shall try to show_, that it is wrong — wrong in its 
direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and 
wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to 
every other part of the wide world where men can be found 
inclined to take it. 

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert 
real zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I 
hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. 
I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its 
just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free insti- 
tutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites ; causes the 
real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and especially 
because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an 
open war with the very fundamental principles of civil lib- 
erty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insist- 
ing that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. 

75 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Before proceeding let me say that I think I have no 
prejudice against the Southern people. They are just whatl 
we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist! 
among them^ they would not introduce it. If it did now 
exist among us^ we should not instantly give it up. This I 
believe of the masses North and South. Doubtless there 
are individuals on both sides who would not hold slaves under 
any circumstances^ and others who would gladly introduce 
slavery anew if it were out of existence. We know that 
some Southern men do free their slaves^ go North and be- 
come tip-top Abolitionists^ while some Northern ones go 
South and become most cruel slave-masters. 

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsi- 
ble for the origin of slavery than we are^ I acknowledge the 
fact. When it is said that the institution exists^ and that it 
is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way^ I can 
understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not 
blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do 
myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not 
know what to do as to the existing institution. My first im- 
pulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to 
Liberia, to their own native land. But a moment's reflection 
would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think 
there is) there may be in this in the long run, its sudden 
execution is impossible. If they were all landed there in a 
day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and there 
are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough to carry 
them there in many times ten days. What then.^ Free 
them all, and keep them among us as underlings.'* Is it 
quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I 
would not hold one in slavery at any rate, yet the point is 
not clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What 
next.^ Free them, and make them politically and socially 
our equals ? My own feelings will not admit of this, and if 

76 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

mine woiild^ we well know that those of the great mass of 
whites will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice 
and sound judgment is not the sole question, if indeed it is 
any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill 
founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot then 
make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of 
gradual emancipation might be adopted, but for their tardi- 
ness in this I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the 
South. 

When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I ac- 
knowledge them — not grudgingly, but fully and fairly; and 
I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their 
fugitives which should not in its stringency be more likely to 
carry a free man into slavery than our ordinary criminal 
laws are to hang an innocent one. 

But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse 
for permitting slavery to go into our own free territory than 
it would for reviving the African slave-trade by law. The 
law which forbids the bringing of slaves from Africa, and 
that which has so long forbidden the taking of them into 
Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral princi- 
ple, and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausi- 
ble excuses as that of the latter. 

Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to consent 
to the extension of slavery to new countries. That is to say, 
inasmuch as you do not object to my taking my hog to Ne- 
braska, therefore I must not object to you taking your slave. 
Now, I admit that this is perfectly logical, if there is no 
difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus 
require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask 
whether you of the South, yourselves, have ever been willing 
to do as much.^ It is kindly provided that of all those who 
come into the world only a small percentage are natural 
tyrants. That percentage is no larger in the slave States 

77 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

than in the free. The great majority South^ as well as 
Norths have human sympathies, of which they can no more 
divest themselves than they can of their sensibility to physi- 
cal pain. These sympathies in the bosoms of the Southern) 
people manifest, in many ways, their sense of the wrong of 
slavery, and their consciousness that, after all, there is 
humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address 
them a few plain questions. In 1820 you joined the North, 
almost unanimously, in declaring the African slave-trade 
piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of death. Why 
did you do this.'' If you did not feel that it was wrong, 
why did you join in providing that men should be hung for 
it.^ The practice was no more than bringing wild negroes 
from Africa to such as would buy them. But you never 
thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild horses, 
wild buffaloes, or wild bears. 

Again, you have among you a sneaking individual of the 
class of native tyrants known as the "Slave-Dealer." He 
watches your necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave, at 
a speculating price. If you cannot help it, you sell to him; 
but if you can help it, you drive him from your door. You 
despise him utterly. You do not recognize him as a friend, 
or even as an honest man. Your children must not play with 
his; they may rollick freely with the little negroes, but not 
with the slave-dealer's children. If you are obliged to deal 
with him, you try to get through the j ob without so much as 
touching him. It is common with you to join hands with 
the men you meet, but with the slave-dealer you avoid the 
ceremony — instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. 
If he grows rich and retires from business, you still remem- 
ber him, and still keep up the ban of non-intercourse upon 
him and his family. Now why is this ? You do not so treat 
the man who deals in corn, cotton, or tobacco. 

And yet again. There are in the United States and Ter- 

78 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ritories, including the District of Columbia 433,643 free 
blacks. At five hundred dollars per head they are worth 
over two hundred millions of dollars. How comes this vast 
amount of property to be running about without owners. 
We do not see free horses or free cattle running at large 
How is this? All these free blacks are the descendants ot 
slaves, or have been slaves themselves; and they would be 
slaves now but for something which has operated on their 
white owners, inducing them at vast pecuniary sacrifice to 
liberate them. What is that something? Is there any mis- 
takino; it? In all these cases it is your sense of justice and 
human sympathy continually telling you that the poor negro 
has some natural right to himself-that those who deny it 
and make mere merchandise of him deserve kickmgs, con- 
tempt, and death. 

And now why will you ask us to deny the humanity of the 
slave, and estimate him as only the equal of the hog? Why 
ask us to do what you will not do yourselves? Why ask us 
to do for nothing what two hundred millions of dollars could 

not induce you to do ? ^ r ^x,^ 

But one great argument in support of the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise is still to come. That argument is 
"the sacred right of self-government." It seems our dis- 
tino-uished senator has found great difficulty in gettmg his 
antagonists, even in the Senate, to meet him fairly on this 
argument. Some poet has said : 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 

At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quota- 
tion, I meet that argument-I rush in-I take that bull by 
the horns. I trust I understand and truly estimate the right 
of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each 
man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is ex- 

79 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

clusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of jus-; 
tice there is in me. I extend the principle to communities of 
men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is 
politically wise^ as well as naturally j ust : politically wise in 
saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us, 
Here_, or at Washington^ I would not trouble myself with 
the oyster laws of Virginia^ or the cranberry laws of Indiana. 
The doctrine of self-government is rights — absolutely and 
eternally rights — but it has no just application as here 
attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it 
has such application depends upon whether a negro is not 
or is a man. If he is not a man^ in that case he who is a 
man may as a matter of self-government do just what he 
pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that 
extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he 
too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs 
himself, that is self-government; but when he governs him- 
self and also governs another man, that is more than self- 
government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why 
then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created 
equal," and that there can be no moral right in connection 
with one man's making a slave of another. 

Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, 
paraphrases our argument by saying: "The white people 
of Nebraska are good enough to govern themselves, but 
they are not good enough to govern a few miserable 
negroes !" 

Well! I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are and 
will continue to be as good as the average of peojDle else- 
where. I do not say the contrary. What I do say is that 
no man is good enough to govern another man without that 
other's consent. I say this is the leading principle, the 
sheet-anchor of American republicanism. 

But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. 

80 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Well^ I too go for saving the Union. Much as I hate sla- 
very, I would consent to the extension of it rather than see 
the Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any great 
evil to avoid a greater one. But when I go to Union-saving, 
I must believe, at least, that the means I employ have some 
adaptation to the end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such 
adaptation. 

It hath no relish of salvation in it. 

It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which 
ever endangers the Union. When it came upon us, all was 
peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming 
of new bonds of union, and a long course of peace and 
prosperity seemed to lie before us. In the whole range 
of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have been 
anything out of which the slavery agitation could have been 
revived, except the very project of repealing the Missouri 
Compromise. Every inch of territory we owned already 
had a definite settlement of the slavery question, by which 
all parties were pledged to abide. Indeed, there was no 
uninhabited country on the continent which we could acquire, 
if we except some extreme northern regions which are 
wholly out of the question. 

In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord himself 
could scarcely have invented a way of again setting us by 
the ears but by turning back and destroying the peace 
measures of the past. The counsels of that Genius seem 
to have prevailed. The Missouri Compromise was repealed; 
and here we are in the midst of a new slavery agitation, 
such, I think, as we have never seen before. Who is re- 
sponsible for this.'' Is it those who resist the measure, or 
those who causelessly brought it forward and pressed it 
through, having reason to know, and in fact knowing, it 
taaust and would be so resisted.'' It could not but be ex- 

81 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

pected by its author that it would be looked upon as a 
measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross 
breach of faith. 

Argue as you will and long as you will, this is the naked 
front and aspect of the measure. And in this aspect it 
could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in the 
selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it in his love of 
justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and 
when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension 
brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must cease- 
lessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all 
compromises, repeal the Declaration of Independence, repeal 
all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It 
still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery ex- 
tension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his 
mouth will continue to speak. 

The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For 
the sake of the Union, it ought to be restored. We ought 
to elect a House of Representatives which will vote its 
restoration. If by any means we omit to do this, what fol- 
lows } Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska. 
But whether it be or not, we shall have repudiated — dis- 
carded from the councils of the nation — the spirit of com- 
promise; for who, after this, will ever trust in a national 
compromise.^ The spirit of mutual concession — that spirit 
which first gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice 
saved the Union — we shall have strangled and cast from 
us forever. And what shall we have in lieu of it? The 
South flushed with triumph and tempted to excess; the 
North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and 
burning for revenge. One side will provoke, the other re- 
sent. The one will taunt, the other defy; one aggresses, 
the other retaliates. Already a few in the North defy all 
constitutional restraints, resist the execution of the fugitive- 

82 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

slave law^ and even menace the institution of slavery in 
the States where it exists. Already a few in the South claim 
|the constitutional right to take and to hold slaves in the 
free States — demand the revival of the slave-trade — and 
demand a treaty with Great Britain by which fugitive 
slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but 
few on either side. It is a grave question for lovers of the 
Union_, whether the final destruction of the Missouri Com- 
promise^ and with it the spirit of all compromise^ will or 
will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fatally 
increase the number of both. 

But restore the compromise, and what then ? We thereby 
restore the national faith, the national confidence, the na- 
tional feeling of brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the 
spirit of concession and compromise, that spirit which has 
never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely 
trusted for all the future. The South ought to join in doing 
4;his. The peace of the nation is as dear to them as to us. 
Tn memories of the past and hopes of the future, they share 
as largely as we. It would be on their part a great act — 
great in its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth 
to the nation a hundred years' purchase of peace and pros- 
perity. And what of sacrifice would they make? They 
only surrender to us what they gave us for a consideration 
long, long ago ; what they have not now asked for, struggled 
or cared for; what has been thrust upon them, not less to 
their astonishment than to ours. 

Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, 
we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near 
eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are 
created equal; but now from that beginning we have run 
down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave 
others is a "sacred right of self-government." These prin- 
ciples cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God 

83 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and Mammon; and who ever holds to the one must despise 
the other. When Pettit^ in connection with his support of 
the Nebraska bill^ called the Declaration of Independence 
"a self-evident lie^" he only did what consistency and can- 
dor require all other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty- 
odd Nebraska senators who sat present and heard him, no 
one rebuked him. Nor am I apprised that any Nebraska 
newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the whole nation has 
ever yet rebuked him. If this had been said among 
Marion's men. Southerners though they were, what would 
have become of the man who said it.^* If this had been said 
to the men who captured Andre, the man who said it would 
probably have been hung sooner than Andre was. If it 
had been said in old Independence Hall seventy-eight years 
ago, the very doorkeeper would have throttled the man and 
thrust him into the street. Let no one be deceived. The 
spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter 
antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by 
the latter. 

Fellow-countrymen, Americans, South as well as North, 
shall we make no effort to arrest this ? Already the liberal 
party throughout the world express the apprehension "that 
the one retrograde institution in America is undermining 
the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest 
political system the world ever saw." This is not the taunt 
of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe 
to disregard it — to despise it? Is there no danger to lib- 
erty itself in discarding the earliest practice and first pre- 
cept of our ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make 
profit of the negro, let us beware lest we "cancel and tear 
in pieces" even the white man's charter of freedom. 

Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. 
Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white in the 
spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn 

84 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

slavery from its claims of "moral right" back upon its ex- 
isting legal rights and its arguments of "necessity." Let 
us return it to the position our fathers gave it^ and there 
let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and with it the practices and policy which har- 
monize with it. Let North and South — let all Americans 
— let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and 
good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved 
the Union, but we shall have so saved it as to make and to 
keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so 
saved it that the succeeding millions of free happy people, 
the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest 
generations. 

[Letter to Hon. George Robertson, Springfield, Illinois, 

15 August 1855.] 

My dear Sir: The volume you left for me has been re- 
ceived. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind 
remembrance, as well as for the book. The partial reading 
I have already given it has afforded me much of both 
pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exact 
question which led to the Missouri Compromise had arisen 
before it arose in regard to Missouri, and that you had 
taken so prominent a part in it. Your short but able and 
patriotic speech upon that occasion has not been improved 
upon since by those holding the same views, and, with all 
the lights you then had, the views you took appear to me 
as very reasonable. 

You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that 

speech you spoke of "the peaceful extinction of slavery," 

' and used other expressions indicating your belief that the 

thing was at some time to have an end. Since then we 

have had thirty-six years of experience ; and this experience 

85 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

has demonstrated, I think, that there is no peaceful extinc- 
tion of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failure of 
Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849^ to 
effect anything in favor of gradual emancipation in Ken- 
tucky, together with a thousand other signs, extinguished 
that hope utterly. On the question of liberty as a prin- 
ciple, we are not what we have been. When we were the 
political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, 
we called the maxim that "all men are created equal" a 
self-evident truth, but now when we have grown fat, and 
have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have be- 
come so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim 
"a self-evident lie." The Fourth of July has not quite 
dwindled away; it is still a great day — for burning fire- 
crackers ! ! ! 

That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of sla- 
very has itself become extinct with the occasion and the 
men of the Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, 
nearly half the States adopted systems of emancipation at 
once, and it is a significant fact that not a single State has 
done the like since. So far as peaceful voluntary emancipa- 
tion is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in Amer- 
ica, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, 
is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better, as 
that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Auto- 
crat of all the Russias will resign his crown and proclaim 
his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American 
masters voluntarily give up their slaves. 

Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation con- 
tinue together permanently — forever — half slave and half 
free?" The problem is too mighty for me — may God, in 
his mercy, superintend the solution. 



86 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a letter to Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, Illinois, 
24 August 1855.] 

Dear Speed: You know what a poor correspondent I am. 
Ever since I received your very agreeable letter of the 22d 
of May I have been intending to write you an answer to 
it. You suggest that in political action, now, you and I 
would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as much, how- 
ever, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery, and 
you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is 
no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield 
your legal right to the slave, especially at the bidding of 
those who are not themselves interested, you would see the 
Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding 
you yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that 
matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your 
rights and my obligations under the Constitution in regard 
to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures 
hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes 
and unrequited toil; but I bite my lips and keep quiet. In 
1841 you and I had together a tedious low- water trip on 
a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remem- 
ber, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the 
Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled 
together with irons. That sight was a continued torment 
to me, and I see something like it every time I touch the 
Ohio or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to 
assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and 
continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. 
You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body 
of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order 
to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. 
I do oppose the extension of slavery because my judgment 

37 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and feeling so prompt me, and I am under no obligations 
to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, differ 
we must. You say, if you were President, you would send 
an army and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages 
upon the Kansas elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes her- 
self a slave State she must be admitted, or the Union must 
be dissolved. But how if she votes herself a slave State 
unfairly, that is, by the very means for which you say you 
would hang men.^ Must she still be admitted, or the Union 
dissolved .f^ That will be the phase of the question when 
it first becomes a practical one. In your assumption that 
there may be a fair decision of the slavery question in Kan- 
sas, I plainly see you and I would differ about the Nebraska 
law. I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as a 
violence from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, 
is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. 
I say it was conceived in violence, because the destruction 
of the Missouri Compromise, under the circumstances, was 
nothing less than violence. It was passed in violence, be- 
cause it could not have passed at all but for the votes of 
many members in violence of the known will of their con- 
stituents. It is maintained in violence, because the elections 
since clearly demand its repeal; and the demand is openly 
disregarded. 

You say men ought to be hung for the way they are ex- 
ecuting the law; I say the way it is being executed is quite 
as good as any of its antecedents. It is being executed in 
the precise way which was intended from the first, else why 
does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemn a- 
tion.f* Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been 
silly enough to believe that anything like fairness was ever 
intended, and he has been bravely undeceived. 

That Kansas will form a slave constitution, and with it 
will ask to be admitted into the Union, I take to be already 

88 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a settled question, and so settled by the very means you so 
pointedly condemn. By every principle of law ever held 
by any court North or South, every negro taken to Kansas 
is free ; yet, in utter disregard of this, — in the spirit of vio- 
lence merely, — that beautiful legislature gravely passes a 
law to hang any man who shall venture to inform a negro 
of his legal rights. This is the subject and real object of 
the law. If, like Haman, they should hang upon the 
gallows of their own building, I shall not be among the 
mourners for their fate. In my humble sphere, I shall 
advocate the restoration of the Missouri Compromise so long 
as Kansas remains a Territory, and when, by all these foul 
means, it seeks to come into the Union as a slave State, I 
shall oppose it. I am very loath in any case to withhold 
my assent to the enjoyment of property acquired or located 
in good faith ; but I do not admit that good faith in taking 
a negro to Kansas to be held in slavery is a probability with 
any man. Any man who has sense enough to be the con- 
troller of his own property has too much sense to misunder- 
stand the outrageous character of the whole Nebraska busi- 
ness. But I digress. In my opposition to the admission 
of Kansas I shall have some company, but we may be beaten. 
If we are, I shall not on that account attempt to dissolve 
the Union. I think it probable, however, we shall be beaten. 
Standing as a unit among yourselves, you can, directly and 
indirectly, bribe enough of our men to carry the day, as 
you could on the open proposition to establish a monarchy. 
Get hold of some man in the North whose position and 
ability is such that he can make the support of your meas- 
ure, whatever it may be, a Democratic party necessity, and 
the thing is done. Apropos of this, let me tell you an anec- 
dote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska bill in January. 
In February afterward there was a called session of the 
Illinois legislature. Of the one hundred members compos- 

89 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ing the two branches of that body^ about seventy were Dem- 
ocrats. These latter held a caucus, in which the Nebraska 
bill was talked of, if not formally discussed. It was 
thereby discovered that just three, and no more, were in 
favor of the measure. In a day or two Douglas's orders 
came on to have resolutions passed approving the bill; and 
they were passed by large majorities ! ! ! The truth of this 
is vouched for by a bolting Democratic member. The 
masses, too. Democratic as well as Whig, were even nearer 
unanimous against it; but, as soon as the party necessity 
of supporting it became apparent, the way the Democrats 
began to see the wisdom and justice of it was perfectly 
astonishing. 

You say that if Kansas fairly votes herself a free State 
as a Christian you will rejoice at it. All decent slave- 
holders talk that way, and I do not doubt their candor. 
But they never vote that way. Although in a private letter 
or conversation you will express your preference that 
Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Con- 
gress who would say the same thing publicly. No such 
man could be elected from any district in a slave State. 
You think Stringfellow and company ought to be hung; 
and yet at the next presidential election you will vote for 
the exact type and representative of Stringfellow. The 
slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small, odious, and 
detested class among you; and yet in politics they dictate 
the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters 
as you are the master of your own negroes. You inquire 
where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I think I 
am a Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that 
I am an Abolitionist. When I was at Washington, I voted 
for the Wilmot proviso as good as forty times ; and I never 
heard of any one attempting to unwhig me for that. I now 
do no more than oppose the extension of slavery. I am 

90 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

not a Know-nothing; that is certain. How could I be? 
How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes be 
in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our prog- 
ress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As 
a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created 
equal." We now practically read it "all men are created 
equal, except negroes." When the Know-nothings get 
control, it will read "all men are created equal except 
negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to 
this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they 
make no pretense of loving liberty, — to Russia, for instance, 
where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base 
alloy of hypocrisy. 

Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in 
October. My kindest regards to Mrs. Speed. On the lead- 
ing subject of this letter, I have more of her sympathy 
than I have of yours; and yet let me say I am your friend 
forever. 



[From a speech delivered at Galena, Illinois, about 1 August 

1856.] 

You further charge us with being disunionists. If you 
mean that it is our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself 
answer that it is untrue ; for those who act with me I answer 
that it is untrue. Have you heard us assert that as our 
aim? Do you really believe that such is our aim? Do you 
find it in our platform, our speeches, our conventions, or 
anywhere? If not, withdraw the charge. 

But you may say that though it is not our aim, it will 
be the result if we succeed, and that we are therefore dis- 
unionists in fact. This is a grave charge you make against 
us, and we certainly have a right to demand that you specify 

91 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

in what way we are to dissolve the Union. How are we to 
effect this ? 

The only specification oiFered is volunteered by Mr. Fill- 
more in his Albany speech. His charge is that if we elect 
a President and Vice-President both from the free States, 
it will dissolve the Union. This is open folly. The Con- 
stitution provides that the President and Vice-President of 
the United States shall be of different States; but says 
nothing as to the latitude and longitude of those States. 
In 1828 Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, and John C. Cal- 
houn, of South Carolina, were elected President and Vice- 
President, both from slave States; but no one thought of 
dissolving the Union then on that account. In 1840 Har- 
rison, of Ohio, and Tyler, of Virginia, were elected. In 
1841 Harrison died and John Tyler succeeded to the presi- 
dency, and William R. King, of Alabama, was elected acting 
Vice-President by the Senate ; but no one supposed that the 
Union was in danger. In fact, at the very time Mr. Fill- 
more uttered this idle charge, the state of things in the 
United States disproved it. Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, 
and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, both from free States, are 
President and Vice-President, and the Union stands and 
will stand. You do not pretend that it ought to dissolve the 
Union, and the facts show that it won't; therefore the 
charge may be dismissed without further consideration. 

No other specification is made, and the only one that 
could be made is that the restoration of the restriction of 
1820, making the United States territory free territory, 
would dissolve the Union. Gentlemen, it will require a de- 
cided majority to pass such an act. We, the majority, being 
able constitutionally to do all that we purpose, would have 
no desire to dissolve the Union. Do you say that such re- 
striction of slavery would be unconstitutional, and that some 
of the States would not submit to its enforcement } I grant 

92 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

you that an unconstitutional act is not a law; but I do not 
ask and will not take your construction of the Constitution. 
The Supreme Court of the United States is the tribunal to 
decide such a question^ and we will submit to its decisions; 
and if you do also, there will be an end of the matter. 
Will you.^* If not, who are the disunionists — you or we? 
We, the majority, would not strive to dissolve the Union; 
and if any attempt is made, it must be by you, who so 
loudly stigmatize us as disunionists. But the Union, in any 
event, will not be dissolved. We don't want to dissolve it, 
and if you attempt it we won't let you. With the purse and 
sword, the army and navy and treasury, in our hands and 
at our command, you could not do it. This government 
would be very weak indeed if a majority with a disciplined 
army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not preserve 
itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, unor- 
ganized minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the 
Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to 
dissolve the Union; you shall not. 



[Fragment of a speech delivered at a Republican banquet 
in Chicago, 10 December 1856.] 

We have another annual presidential message. Like a 
rejected lover making merry at the wedding of his rival, 
the President felicitates himself hugely over the late presi- 
dential election. He considers the result a signal triumph 
of good principles and good men, and a very pointed rebuke 
of bad ones. He says the people did it. He forgets that 
the "people," as he complacently calls only those who voted 
for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by 
abcut four hundred thousand votes — one full tenth of all 
the votes. Remembering this, he might perceive that the 

93 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

"rebuke" may not be quite as durable as he seems to think 
— that the majority may not choose to remain permanently 
rebuked by that minority. 

The President thinks the great body of us Fremonters, 
being ardently attached to liberty, in the abstract, were 
duped by a few wicked and designing men. There is a 
slight difference of opinion on this. We think he, being 
ardently attached to the hope of a second term, in the con- 
crete, was duped by men who had liberty every way. He 
is the cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts from the 
fire for others to eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, 
and he is thrown aside as unfit for further use. As the 
fool said of Kiiig Lear, when his daughters had turned him 
out of doors, "He 's a shelled peascod" ["That 's a sheal'd 
peascod"]. 

So far as the President charges us "with a desire to 
change the domestic institutions of existing States," and of 
"doing everything in our power to deprive the Constitution 
and the laws of moral authority," for the whole party on 
belief, and for myself on knowledge, I pronounce the charge 
an unmixed and unmitigated falsehood. 

Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can 
change public opinion can change the government practically 
just so much. Public opinion, on any subject, always has 
a "central idea," from which all its minor thoughts radiate. 
That "central idea" in our political public opinion at the be- 
ginning was, and until recently has continued to be, "the 
equality of men." And although it has always submitted 
patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to be as 
matter of actual necessity, its constant working has been 
a steady progress toward the practical equality of all men. 
The late presidential election was a struggle by one party 
to discard that central idea and to substitute for it the op- 
posite idea that slavery is right in the abstract, the work- 

94 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ings of which as a central idea may be the perpetuity of 
human slavery, and its extension to all countries and colors. 
Less than a year ago the Richmond "Enquirer," an avowed 
advocate of slavery, regardless of color, in order to favor his 
views, invented the phrase "State equality," and now the 
President, in his message, ado23ts the "Enquirer's" catch- 
phrase, telling us the people "have asserted the constitu- 
tional equality of each and all of the States of the Union 
as States." The President flatters himself that the new 
central idea is completely inaugurated; and so indeed it is, 
so far as the mere fact of a presidential election can in- 
augurate it. To us it is left to know that the majority of 
the people have not yet declared for it, and to hope that 
they never will. All of us who did not vote for Mr. 
Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred 
thousand. But in the late contest we were divided between 
Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not come together for the 
future.^ Let every one who really believes, and is resolved, 
that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who 
can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has 
done only what he thought best — let every such one have 
charity to believe that every other one can say as much. 
Thus let bygones be bygones; let past differences as noth- 
ing be; and with steady eye on the real issue, let us rein- 
augurate the good old "central ideas" of the republic. We 
can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. 
We shall again be able not to declare that "all States as 
States are equal," nor yet that "all citizens as citizens are 
equal," but to renew the broader, better declaration, includ- 
ing both these and much more, that "all men are created 
equal." 



95 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[From a speech at Springfield, Illinois, 26 June 1857.] 

Now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision de- 
clares two propositions — first, that a negro cannot sue in 
the United States courts; and secondly, that Congress can- 
not prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a 
divided court — dividing differently on the different points. 
Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision, 
and in that respect I shall follow his example, believing I 
could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he could 
on Taney. 

He denounces all who question the correctness of that 
decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who re- 
sists it.f* Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred 
Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master over 
him.f' 

I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott decision was 
in part based on assumed historical facts which were not 
really true, and I ought not to leave the subject without 
giving some reasons for saying this ; I therefore give an in- 
stance or two, which I think fully sustain me. Chief Jus- 
tice Taney, in delivering the opinion of the majority of the 
court, insists at great length that negroes were no part of 
the people who made, or for whom was made, the Declara- 
tion of Independence, or the Constitution of the United 
States. 

On the contrary. Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, 
shows that in five of the then thirteen States — to wit. New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and 
North Carolina — free negroes were voters, and in propor- 
tion to their numbers had the same part in making the Con- 
stitution that the white people had. He shows this with so 
much particularity as to leave no doubt of its truth. . . . 

96 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The chief justice does not directly assert, but plainly 
assumes, as a fact, that the public estimate of the black man 
is more favorable now than it was in the days of the Revo- 
lution. This assumption is a mistake. In some trifling 
particulars the condition of that race has been ameliorated; 
but as a whole, in this country, the change between then and 
now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny 
has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four 
years. In two of the five, States — New Jersey and North 
Carolina — that then gave the free negro the right of voting, 
the right has since been taken away, and in a third — New 
York — it has been greatly abridged; while it has not been 
extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, 
though the number of the States has more than doubled. 
In those days, as I understand, masters could, at their own 
pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then such legal 
restraints have been made upon emancipation as to amount 
almost to prohibition. In those days legislatures held the 
unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective 
States, but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State 
constitutions to withhold that power from the legislatures. 
In those days, by common consent, the spread of the black 
man's bondage to the new countries was prohibited, but now 
Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition, 
and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. 
In those days our Declaration of Independence was held 
sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid 
in making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, 
it is assailed and sneered at and construed, and hawked at 
and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, 
they could not at all recognize it. All the powers of earth 
seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after 
him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology 
of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his 

97 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

prison-house; they have searched his person^ and left no 
prying instrument with him. One after another they have 
closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they have 
him, as it were_, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, 
which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of 
every key — the keys in the hands of a hundred different 
men, and they scattered to a hundred different and distant 
places; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all 
the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make 
the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is. 

It is grossly incorrect to say or assume that the public 
estimate of the negro is more favorable now than it was 
at the origin of the government. 

Three years and a half ago. Judge Douglas brought for- 
ward his famous Nebraska bill. The country was at once 
in a blaze. He scorned all opposition, and carried it through 
Congress. Since then he has seen himself superseded in 
a presidential nomination by one indorsing the general 
doctrine of his measure, but at the same time standing 
clear of the odium of its untimely agitation and its gross 
breach of national faith; and he has seen that successful 
rival constitutionally elected, not by the strength of friends, 
but by the division of adversaries, being in a popular 
minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes. He has 
seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields and Richard- 
son, politically speaking, successively tried, convicted, and 
executed for an offense not their own, but his. And now 
he sees his own case standing next on the docket for 
trial. 

There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all 
white people at the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation 
of the white and black races ; and Judge Douglas evidently 
is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able 
to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If 

98 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

he can^ by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium 
of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle 
through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope, as a 
drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion 
for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott 
decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Dec- 
laration of Independence includes all men, black as well 
as white, and forthwith he boldly denies that it includes 
negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who 
contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and 
eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes ! He will have it 
that they cannot be consistent else. Now I protest against 
the counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do 
not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily 
want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. 
I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly 
is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread 
she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any 
one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others. 

Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott 
case, admits that the language of the Declaration is broad 
enough to include the whole human family, but he and 
Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument 
did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they 
did not at once actually place them on an equality with 
the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just nothing 
at all, by the other fact that they did not at once, or ever 
afterward, actually place all white people on an equality 
with one another. And this is the staple argument of both 
the chief justice and the senator for doing this obvious vio- 
lence to the plain, unmistakable language of the Declara- 
tion. 

I think the authors of that notable instrument intended 
to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all 

99 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all 
were equal in color^, size^ intellect^ moral developments, or 
social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness 
in what respects they did consider all men created equal — 
equal with "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, 
and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the ob- 
vious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that 
equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it imme- 
diately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer 
such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so 
that enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances 
should permit. 

They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, 
which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; con- 
stantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though 
never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and 
thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence 
and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all 
people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that "all 
men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting 
our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in 
the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors 
meant it to be — as, thank God, it is now proving itself — a 
stumbling-block to all those who in after times might seek 
to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of des- 
potism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed 
tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this 
fair land and commence their vocation, they should find left 
for them at least one hard nut to crack. 

I have now briefly expressed my view of the meaning and 
object of that part of the Declaration of Independence 
which declares that "all men are created equal." 

Now let us hear Judge Douglas's view of the same sub- 

100 



I 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ject, as I find it in the printed report of his late speech. 
Here it is : 

No man can vindicate the character, motives, and conduct 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, except 
upon the hypothesis that they referred to the white race 
alone, and not to the Africans, when they declared all men 
to have been created equal; that they were speaking of 
British subjects on this continent being equal to British 
subjects born and residing in Great Britain; that they were 
entitled to the same inalienable rights, and among them were 
enumerated life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The 
Declaration was adopted for the purpose of justifying the 
colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in withdrawing 
their allegiance from the British crown, and dissolving their 
connection with the mother country. 

My good friends, read that carefully over some leisure 
hour, and ponder well upon it; see what a mere wreck — 
mangled ruin — it makes of our once glorious Declara- 
tion. 

"They were speaking of British subjects on this continent 
being equal to British subjects born and residing in Great 
Britain !" Why, according to this, not only negroes but 
white people outside of Great Britain and America were 
not spoken of in that instrument. The English, Irish, and 
Scotch, along with white Americans, were included, to be 
sure, but the French, Germans, and other white people of 
the world are all gone to pot along with the judge's infe- 
rior races ! 

I had thought the Declaration promised something better 
than the condition of British subjects; but no, it only meant 
that we should be equal to them in their own oppressed 
and unequal condition. According to that, it gave no prom- 
ise that, having kicked oif the king and lords of Great 

101 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Britain, we should not at once be saddled with a king and 
lords of our own. 

I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progress- 
ive improvement in the condition of all men everywhere; 
but no, it merely "was adopted for the purpose of justify- 
ing the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in with- 
drawing their allegiance from the British crown, and dis- 
solving their connection with the mother country." Why, 
that object having been effected some eighty years ago, the 
Declaration is of no practical use now — mere rubbish — old 
wadding left to rot on the battle-field after the victory is 
won. 

I understand you are preparing to celebrate the "Fourth," 
to-morrow week. What for? The doings of that day had 
no reference to the present; and quite half of you are not 
even descendants of those who were referred to at that day. 
But I suppose you will celebrate, and will even go so far as 
to read the Declaration. Suppose, after you read it once 
in the old-fashioned way, jon read it once more with Judge 
Douglas's version. It will then run thus: "We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all British subjects who were 
on this continent eighty-one years ago, were created equal 
to all British subjects born and then residing in Great 
Britain." 

And now I appeal to all — to Democrats as well as others 
— are you really willing that the Declaration shall thus be 
frittered away.^* — thus left no more, at most, than an inter- 
esting memorial of the dead past? — thus shorn of its vital- 
ity and practical value, and left without the germ or even 
the suggestion of the individual rights of man in it? 

But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought 
of the mixing of blood by the white and black races. 
Agreed for once — a thousand times agreed. There are 
white men enough to marry all the white women, and black 

102 



I 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

men enough to marry all the black women; and so let them 
be married. On this point we fully agree with the judge, 
and when he shall show that his policy is better adapted 
to prevent amalgamation than ours, we shall drop ours and 
adopt his. Let us see. In 1850 there were in the United 
States 405,751 mulattos. Very few of these are the off- 
spring of whites and free blacks; nearly all have sprung 
from black slaves and white masters. A separation of the 
races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation; but 
as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best 
thing is to keep them apart where they are not already 
together. 

Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected 
by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now 
doing anything directly for colonization. Party operations 
at present only favor or retard colonization incidentally. 
The enterprise is a difficult one; but "where there is a will 
there is a way," and what colonization needs most is a 
hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral 
sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is 
morally right, and at the same time favorable to, or at 
least not against, our interest to transfer the African to his 
native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great 
the task may be. The children of Israel, to such numbers 
as to include four hundred thousand fighting men, went out 
of Egyptian bondage in a bodj^ 

How differently the respective courses of the Democratic 
and Republican parties incidentally bear on the question 
of forming a will — a public sentiment — for colonization, is 
easy to see. The Republicans inculcate, with whatever of 
ability they can, that the negro is a man, that his bondage 
is cruelly wrong, and that the field of his oppression ought 
not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; 
deny, or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; 

103 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

so far as possible^ crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate 
and excite hatred and disgust against him; compliment 
themselves as Union-savers for doing so; and call the in- 
definite outspreading of his bondage "a sacred right of self- 
government." 

The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; 
and it will be ever hard to find many men who will send a 
slave to Liberia, and pay his passage, while they can send 
him to a new country — Kansas, for instance — and sell him 
for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise. 



[Memorandum sent to compiler of The Dictionary of Con- 
gress, about 15 June 1858.] 

Born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. 
Education defective. 
Profession, a lawyer. 

Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk war. 
Postmaster at a very small office. 

Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was 
a member of the lower house of Congress. 



[From a speech delivered before the Republican state con- 
vention at Springfield, Illinois, which had nominated 
Lincoln for United States senator l6 June 1858.] 

Mr. President and Gentlejiien of the Convention: If we 
could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We 
are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated 
with the avowed object and confident promise of putting 
an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that 
policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has con- 

104 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

stantly augmented. In my opinion^ it will not cease until 
a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house di- 
vided against itself cannot stand." I believe this govern- 
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. 
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect 
the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the 
opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, 
and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates 
will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States^ old as well as new, North as well as South. 



[From a speech at Chicago, Illinois, 10 July 1858.] 

Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech 
at Springfield. He says they are to be the issues of this 
campaign. The first one of these points he bases upon 
the language in a speech which I delivered at Springfield^ 
which I believe I can quote correctly from memory. I 
said there that "we are now far into the fifth year since 
a policy was instituted for the avowed object and with the 
confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation; 
under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not 
only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. I believe it 
will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and 
passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I 
believe this government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved" — I am quoting from my speech — "I do not expect 
the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the 
opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, 

105 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advo- 
cates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful 
in all the States, old as well as new. North as well as 
South." 

That is the paragraph ! In this paragraph which I have 
quoted in your hearing, and to which I ask the attention 
of all. Judge Douglas thinks he discovers great political 
heresy. I want your attention particularly to what he has 
inferred from it. He says I am in favor of making all 
the States of this Union uniform in all their internal regula- 
tions; that in all their domestic concerns I am in favor of 
making them entirely uniform. He draws this inference 
from the language I have quoted to you. He says that I 
am in favor of making war by the North upon the South 
for the extinction of slavery; that I am also in favor of in- 
viting (as he expresses it) the South to a war upon the 
North, for the purpose of nationalizing slavery. Now, it is 
singular enough, if you will carefully read that passage 
over, that I did not say that I was in favor of anything in 
it. I only said what I expected would take place. I made 
a prediction only — it may have been a foolish one, perhaps. 
I did not even say that I desired that slavery should be put 
in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now, however, 
so there need be no longer any difficulty about that. It 
may be written down in the great speech. 

Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that this speech 
of mine was probably carefully prepared. I admit that it 
was. I am not master of language; I have not a fine edu- 
cation; I am not capable of entering into a disquisition 
upon dialectics, as I believe you call it ; but I do not believe 
the language I employed bears any such construction as 
Judge Douglas puts upon it. But I don't care about a 
quibble in regard to words. I know what I meant, and I 

106 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will not leave this crowd in doubt, if I can explain it to 
them, what I really meant in the use of that paragraph. 

I am not, in the first place, unaware that this government 
has endured eighty-two years half slave and half free. I 
know that. I am tolerably well acquainted with the history 
of the country, and I know that it has endured eighty-two 
years half slave and half free. I believe — and that is what 
I meant to allude to there — I believe it has endured because 
during all that time, until the introduction of the Nebraska 
bill, the public mind did rest all the time in the belief that 
slavery was in course of ultimate extinction. That was 
what gave us the rest that we had through that period of 
eighty-two years ; at least, so I believe. I have always 
hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist — I have 
been an old-line Whig — I have always hated it, but I have 
always been quiet about it until this new era of the intro- 
duction of the Nebraska bill began. I always believed that 
everybody was against it, and that it was in course of ulti- 
mate extinction. [Pointing to Mr. Browning, who stood 
near by.] Browning thought so; the great mass of the 
nation have rested in the belief that slavery was in course 
of ultimate extinction. They had reason so to believe. 

The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant his- 
tory led the people to believe so, and that such was the 
belief of the framers of the Constitution itself. Why did 
those old men, about the time of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, decree that slavery should not go into the new 
territory, where it had not already gone? Why declare 
that within twenty years the African slave-trade, by which 
slaves are supplied, might be cut off by Congress? Why 
were all these acts ? I might enumerate more of these acts 
— but enough. What were they but a clear indication that 
the framers of the Constitution intended and expected the 
ultimate extinction of that institution? And now, when I 

107 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

say, — as I said in my speech that Judge Douglas has 
quoted from^ — when I say that I think the opponents of 
slavery will resist the farther spread of it^, and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
course of ultimate extinction, I only mean to say that they 
will place it where the founders of this government origi- 
nally placed it. 

I have said a hundred times, and I have now no inclina- 
tion to take it back, that I believe there is no right and 
ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States 
to enter into the slave States and interfere with the ques- 
tion of slavery at all. I have said that always; Judge 
Douglas has heard me say it — if not quite a hundred times, 
at least as good as a hundred times; and when it is said 
that I am in favor of interfering with slavery where it 
exists, I know it is unwarranted by anything I have ever 
intended, and, as I believe, by anything I have ever said. 
If by any means I have ever used language which could 
fairly be so construed (as, however, I believe I never have), 
I now correct it. . . . 

It happens that we meet together once every year, 
somewhere about the 4th of July, for some reason or other. 
These 4th of July gatherings I suppose have their uses. 
If you will indulge me, I will state what I suppose to be 
some of them. 

We are now a mighty nation: we are thirty, or about 
thirty, millions of people, and we own and inhabit about 
one fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. We 
run our memory back over the pages of history for about 
eighty-two years, and we discover that we were then a very 
small people, in point of numbers vastly inferior to what 
we are now, with a vastly less extent of country, with vastly 
less of everything we deem desirable among men. We look 
upon the change as exceedingly advantageous to us and to 

108 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

our posterity^ and we fix upon something that happened 
away back as in some way or other being connected with 
this rise of prosperity. We find a race of men living in 
that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; 
they were iron men; they fought for the principle that they 
were contending for; and we understood that by what they 
then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity which 
we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebra- 
tion to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process 
of time^ of how it was done and who did it^ and how we 
are historically connected with it; and we go from these 
meetings in better humor with ourselves — we feel more at- 
tached the one to the other^ and more firmly bound to the 
country we inhabit. In every way we are better men, in 
the age, and race, and country in which we live, for these 
celebrations. But after we have done all this, we have 
not yet reached the whole. There is something else con- 
nected with it. We have, besides these men — descended by 
blood from our ancestors — among us, perhaps half our 
people who are not descendants at all of these men; they 
are men who have come from Europe, — German, Irish, 
French, and Scandinavian, — men that have come from 
Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither 
and settled here, finding themselves our equal in all things. 
If they look back through this history to trace their con- 
nection with those days by blood, they find they have none; 
they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch 
and make themselves feel that they are part of us; but 
when they look through that old Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, they find that those old men say that "We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," 
and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that 
day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the 
father of all moral principle in them, and that they have 

109 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, 
and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declara- 
tion, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that 
Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty- 
loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts 
as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men 
throughout the world. 

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this 
idea of "don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down," 
for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for holding that 
the Declaration of Independence did not mean anything 
at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of what 
the Declaration of Independence means, and we have him 
saying that the people of America are equal to the people 
of England. According to his construction, you Germans 
are not connected with it. Now I ask you, in all soberness, 
if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed 
and indorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to 
them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in 
the country, and to transform this government into a gov- 
ernment of some other form.^ Those arguments that are 
made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much 
allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much 
is to be done for them as their condition will allow — what 
are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings 
have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. 
You will find that all the arguments in favor of kingcraft 
were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the 
people — not that they wanted to do it, but because the 
people were better off for being ridden. That is their ar- 
gument, and this argument of the judge is the same old 
serpent that says. You work and I eat, you toil and I will 
enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will — 
whether it come from the mouth of a king, an excuse for 

110 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of 
men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of an- 
other race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold it that 
course of argumentation that is made for the purpose ot 
convincing the public mind that we should not care about 
this should be granted, it does not stop with the negro 1 
should like to know— taking this old Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, which declares that all men are equal upon prin- 
ciple, and making exceptions to it,— where will it stop? It 
one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another 
say it does not mean some other man? If that Declaration 
is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find 
it, and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it? It it is 
not true, let us tear it out [cries of "No, no ]. Let us 
stick to it, then; let us stand firmly by it, then. 

It may be argued that there are certain conditions that 
make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the ex- 
tent that a necessity is imposed upon a man he must sub- 
mit to it. I think that was the condition in which we found 
ourselves when we established this government. We had 
slaves among us; we could not get our Constitution unless 
we permitted them to remain in slavery; we could not se- 
cure the good we did secure if we grasped for more; but 
having by necessity submitted to that much, it does not de- 
stroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let 
that charter stand as our standard. 

My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote 
Scripture. I will try it again, however. It is said m one 
of the admonitions of our Lord, "Be ye [therefore] per- 
fect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 
The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human 
creature could be perfect as the Father in heaven; but he 
said "As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also per- 
fect/' He set that up as a standard, and he who did most 

111 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

toward reaching that standard attained the highest degree 
of moral perfection. So I say in relation to the principle 
that all men are created equals let it be as nearly reached 
as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature_, 
let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other 
creature. Let us then turn this government back into the 
channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally 
placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do 
not do so, we are tending in the contrary direction that 
our friend Judge Douglas proposes — not intentionally — 
working in the traces that tend to make this one universal 
slave nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as 
such I resist him. 

My friends, I have detained you about as long as I de- 
sired to do, and I have only to say, let us discard all this 
quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and 
that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore 
they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard 
all these things, and unite as one people throughout this 
land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all 
men are created equal. 

[From a speech at Springfield, Illinois, 17 July 1858.] 

Last night Judge Douglas tormented himself with hor- 
rors about my disposition to make negroes perfectly equal 
with white men in social and political relations. He did 
not stop to show that I have said any such thing, or that 
it legitimately follows from anything I have said, but he 
rushes on with his assertions. I adhere to the Declaration 
of Independence. If Judge Douglas and his friends are 
not willing to stand by it, let them come up and amend it. 
Let them make it read that all men are created equal, ex- 
cept negroes. Let us have it decided whether the Declara- 

112 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tion of Independence, in this blessed year of 1858, shall 
be thus amended. In his construction of the Declaration 
last year, he said it only meant that Americans in America 
were equal to Englishmen in England. Then, when I 
pointed out to him that by that rule he excludes the Ger- 
mans, the Irish, the Portuguese, and all the other people 
who have come amongst us since the Revolution, he recon- 
structs his construction. In his last speech he tells us it 
meant Europeans. 

I press him a little further, and ask if it meant to 
include the Russians in Asia? or does he mean to exclude 
that vast population from the principles of our Declaration 
of Independence? I expect ere long he will introduce an- 
other amendment to his definition. He is not at all partic- 
ular. He is satisfied with anything which docs not endanger 
the nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white 
men down, but it must not lift negroes up. Who shall say, 
"1 am the superior, and you are the inferior?" 

My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may 
be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have 
said that I do not understand the Declaration to mean that 
all men were created equal in all respects. They are not 
our equal in color; but I suppose that it does mean to de- 
clare that all men are equal in some respects ; they are equal 
in their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
Certainly the negro is not our equal in color — perhaps not 
in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his 
mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the 
equal of every other man, white or black. In pointing out 
that more has been given you, you cannot be justified in 
taking away the little which has been given him. All I 
ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him 
alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy. 

When our government was established, we had the insti- 

113 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

tution of slavery among us. We were in a certain sense 
compelled to tolerate its existence. It was a sort of necessity. 
We had gone through our struggle^ and secured our own 
independence. The framers of the Constitution found the 
institution of slavery amongst their other institutions at the 
time. They found that by an effort to eradicate it, they 
might lose much of what they had already gained. They 
were obliged to bow to the necessity. They gave power 
to Congress to abolish the slave-trade at the end of twenty 
years. They also prohibited slavery in the Territories 
where it did not exist. They did what they could and yielded 
to necessity for the rest. I also yield to all which follows 
from that necessity. What I would most desire would be 
the separation of the white and black races. 



[From Lincoln^s reply to Douglas in the first joint debate, 
Ottawa, Illinois, 21 August 1858.] 

Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any great length, 
but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in 
regard to the institution of slavery and the black race. 
This is the whole of it, and anything that argues me into 
his idea of perfect social and political equality with the 
negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, 
by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chest- 
nut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that 
I have no purpose, either directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. 
I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no 
inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political 
and social equality between the white and the black races. 
There is a physical difference between the two, which, in 
my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living to- 
gether upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch 

114 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, 
I; as well as Judge Douglas^, am in favor of the race to 
which I belong having the superior position. I have never 
said anything to the contrary^ but I hold that^ notwith- 
standing all this^ there is no reason in the world why the 
negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated 
in the Declaration of Independence — the right to life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as 
much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with 
Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects — cer- 
tainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual 
endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the 
leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is 
my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas^ and the equal 
of every living man. 

Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, the man for 
whom I fought all my humble life — Henry Clay once said 
of a class of men who would repress all tendencies to lib- 
erty and ultimate emancipation, that they must, if they 
would do this, go back to the era of our independence, and 
muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return; 
they must blow out the moral lights around us; they must 
jjenetrate the human soul, and eradicate there the love of 
liberty; and then, and not till then, could they perpetuate 
slavery in this country ! To my thinking. Judge Douglas 
is, by his example and vast influence, doing that very thing 
in this community when he says that the negro has nothing 
in the Declaration of Independence. Henry Clay plainly 
understood the contrary. Judge Douglas is going back to 
the era of our Revolution, and to the extent of his ability 
muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous re- 
turn. When he invites any people, willing to have slavery, 
to establish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. 
When he says he "cares not whether slavery is voted down 

115 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

or voted up" — that it is a sacred right of self-government 
— he is^ in my judgment^ penetrating the human soul and 
eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty in 
this American people. And now I will only say that when, 
by all these means and appliances. Judge Douglas shall 
succeed in bringing public sentiment to an exact accordance 
with his own views — when these vast assemblages shall echo 
back all these sentiments — when they shall come to repeat 
his views and to avow his principles, and to say all that 
he says on these mighty questions — then it needs only the 
formality of the second Dred Scott decision, which he in- 
dorses in advance, to make slavery alike lawful in all the 
States — old as well as new. North as well as South. 

[From Lincoln's opening speech in the second joint debate, 
Freeport, Illinois, 27 August 1858.] 

I have supposed myself, since the organization of the 
Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as 
a party man by the platforms of the party then and since. 
If in any interrogatories which I shall answer I go beyond 
the scope of what is within these platforms, it will be per- 
ceived that no one is responsible but myself. Having said 
this much, I will take up the judge's interrogatories as I find 
them printed in the Chicago "Times," and answer them 
seriatim. In order that there may be no mistake about it, 
I have copied the interrogatories in writing, and also my 
answers to them. The first one of these interrogatories is 
in these words: 

Question 1. "I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day 
stands as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional re- 
peal of the fugitive-slave law?" 

Afiswer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of 
the unconditional repeal of the fugitive-slave law. 

116 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Q. 2. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged 
to-day as he did in 1854^ against the admission of any 
more slave States into the Union^ even if the people want 
them?" 

A. I do not now^ nor ever did^ stand pledged against 
the admission of any more slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3. "I want to know whether he stands pledged against 
the admission of a new State into the Union with such a 
constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?" 

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a 
new State into the Union with such a constitution as the 
people of that State may see fit to make. 

Q. 4. "I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged 
to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?" 

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia. 

Q. 5. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged 
to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different 
States ?" 

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave- 
trade between the different States. 

Q. 6. "I desire to know whether he stands pledged to 
prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, 
North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise 
line?" 

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief 
in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all 
the United States Territories. 

Q. 7. "I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to 
the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first 
prohibited therein?" 

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of 
territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not op- 
pose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such 

117 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

acquisition would or would not aggravate the slavery ques- 
tion among ourselves. 

Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an examina- 
tion of these questions and answers, that so far I have 
only answered that I was not pledged to this, that, or the 
other. The judge has not framed his interrogatories to ask 
me anything more than this, and I have answered in strict 
accordance with the interrogatories, and have answered 
truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of the points 
to which I have answered. But I am not disposed to hang 
upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am really dis- 
posed to take up at least some of these questions, and state 
what I really think upon them. 

As to the first one, in regard to the fugitive-slave 
law, I have never hesitated to say, and I do not now 
hesitate to say, that I think, under the Constitution of 
the United States, the people of the Southern States 
are entitled to a congressional fugitive-slave law. Having 
said that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the 
existing fugitive-slave law, further than that I think it 
should have been framed so as to be free from some of the 
objections that pertain to it, without lessening its efficiency. 
And inasmuch as we are not now in an agitation in regard 
to an alteration or modification of that law, I would not be 
the man to introduce it as a new subject of agitation upon 
the general question of slavery. 

In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged 
to the admission of any more slave States into the Union, 
I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly 
sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon 
that question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that 
there would never be another slave State admitted into the 
Union; but I must add, that if slavery shall be kept out 
of the Territories during the territorial existence of any 

118 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

one given Territory, and then the people shall, having a 
fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt the 
Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt 
a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of 
the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we own 
the country, but to admit them into the Union. 

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to 
the second, it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have 
my mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceedingly 
glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. 
I believe that Congress possesses the constitutional power 
to abolish it. Yet as a member of Congress, I should not 
with my present views be in favor of endeavoring to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia unless it would be upon 
these conditions : First, that the abolition should be gradual ; 
second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of qual- 
ified voters in the District; and third, that compensation 
should be made to unwilling owners. With these three con- 
ditions, I confess I would be exceedingly glad to see Con- 
gress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and, in 
the language of Henry Clay, "sweep from our capital that 
foul blot upon our nation." 

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say here that 
as to the question of the abolition of the slave-trade between 
the different States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I 
am pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which 
I have not given that mature consideration that would make 
me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold myself 
entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has 
never been prominently enough before me to induce me to 
investigate whether we really have the constitutional power 
to do it. I could investigate it if I had sufficient time to 

119 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

bring myself to a conclusion upon that subject^ but I have 
not done so, and I say so frankly to you here and to Judge 
Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should be of opin- 
ion that Congress does possess the constitutional power to 
abolish the slave-trade among the different States, I should 
still not be in favor of the exercise of that power unless 
upon some conservative principle as I conceive it, akin to 
what I have said in relation to the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia. 

My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be 
prohibited in all the Territories of the United States is 
full and explicit within itself, and cannot be made clearer 
by any comments of mine. So I suj^pose in regard to the 
question whether I am opposed to the acquisition of any 
more territory unless slavery is first prohibited therein, my 
answer is sucli that I could add nothing by way of illustra- 
tion, or making myself better understood, than the answer 
which I have placed in writing. 

Now in all this the judge has me, and he has me on 
the record. I suppose he had flattered himself that I was 
really entertaining one set of opinions for one place and 
another set for another place — that I was afraid to say at 
one place what I uttered at another. What I am saying 
here I suppose I say to a vast audience as strongly tending 
to Abolitionism as any audience in the State of Illinois, 
and I believe I am saying that which, if it would be offen- 
sive to any persons and render them enemies to myself, 
would be offensive to persons in this audience. 

[Note for a speech, written about 16 September 1858.] 

I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" 
is the great fundamental principle upon which our free 
institutions rest. That negro slavery is violative of that 

120 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

principle; but that by our form of government that 
principle has not been made one of legal obligation. That 
by our form of government the States which have slavery 
are to retain or disuse it, at their own pleasure; and that all 
others — individuals, free States, and National Government 
— are constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it. 
That our government was thus framed because of the ne- 
cessity springing from the actual presence of slavery when 
it was formed. 



[From Lincoln's opening speech at the fourth joint de- 
bate, Charleston, Illinois, 18 September 1858.] 

While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman 
called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of 
producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white 
people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occa- 
sion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was 
asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes 
in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that 
I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about 
in any way the social and political equality of the white 
and black races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor 
of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying 
them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; 
and I will say in addition to tliis that there is a physical 
difference between the white and black races which I believe 
will forever forbid the two races living together on terms 
of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they can- 
not so live, while they do remain together there must be the 
position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any 
other man am in favor of having the superior position 
assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do 
not perceive that because the white man is to have the 

121 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

superior position the negro should be denied everything. 
I do not understand that because I do not want a negro 
woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. 
My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am 
now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a 
black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to 
me quite possible for us to get along without making either 
slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have 
never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman, or child who 
was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and 
political, between negroes and white men. I recollect of 
but one distinguished instance that I ever heard of so fre- 
quently as to be entirely satisfied of its correctness, and 
that is the case of Judge Douglas's old friend Colonel 
Richard M. Johnson. I will also add to the remarks I have 
made (for I am not going to enter at large upon this sub- 
ject), that I have never had the least apprehension that I 
or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law 
to keep them from it ; but as Judge Douglas and his friends 
seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there 
were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn 
pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this 
State, which forbids the marrying of white people with ne- 
groes. I will add one further word, which is this : that I do 
not understand that there is any place where an alteration of 
the social and political relations of the negro and the white 
man can be made except in the State legislature — not in 
the Congress of the United States; and as I do not really 
apprehend the approach of any such thing myself, and as 
Judge Douglas seems to be in constant horror that some 
such danger is rapidly approaching, I propose, as the best 
means to prevent it, that the judge be kept at home and 
placed in the State legislature to fight the measure. I do 
not propose dwelling longer at this time on the subject. 

122 






OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

rProm Lincoln's rejoinder to Douglas at the Charleston, 
Illinois, joint debate 18 September 1858. J 
Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able 
to get from me an answer to the question whether I am in 
favor of negro citizenship. So far as I know, the judge 
never asked me the question before. He shall have no oc- 
casion to ever ask it again, for I tell Wm very frankly 
that I am not in favor of negro citizenship. This furnishes 
me an occasion for saying a few words upon the subject. 
I mentioned in a certain speech of mine, which has been 
printed, that the Supreme Court had decided that a negro 
could not possibly be made a citizen, and without saymg 
what was my ground of complaint in regard to that, or 
whether I had any ground of complaint. Judge Douglas 
has from that thing manufactured nearly everythmg that 
he ever says about my disposition to produce an equality 
between the negroes and the white people. If any one will 
read my speech, he will find I mentioned that as one of 
the points decided in the course of the Supreme Court opin- 
ions, but I did not state what objection I had to it. But 
Judge Douglas tells the people what my objection was 
when I did not tell them myself. Now my opmion is that 
the different States have the power to make a negro a citizen 
under the Constitution of the United States, if they choose 
The Dred Scott decision decides that they have not that 
power. If the State of Illinois had that power, I should 
be opposed to the exercise of it. That is all I have to say 
about it. 

[Note for a speech, written about 1 October 1858.] 
But there is a larger issue than the mere question of 
whether the spread of negro slavery shall or shall not be 

123 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

prohibited by Congress. That larger issue is stated by the 
Richmond "Enquirer/' a Buchanan paper in the South, in 
the language I now read. It is also stated by the New York 
"Day-book/' a Buchanan paper in the North, in this 
language. ... In support of the Nebraska bill, on 
its first discussion in the Senate, Senator Pettit of Indiana 
declared the equality of men, as asserted in our Declaration 
of Independence, to be a "self-evident lie." In his numer- 
ous speeches now being made in Illinois, Senator Douglas 
regularly argues against the doctrine of the equality of 
men; and while he does not draw the conclusion that the 
superiors ought to enslave the inferiors, he evidently wishes 
his hearers to draw that conclusion. He shirks the respon- 
sibility of pulling the house down, but he digs under it 
that it may fall of its own weight. Now, it is impossible 
to not see that these newspapers and senators are laboring 
at a common object, and in so doing are truly representing 
the controlling sentiment of their party. 

It is equally impossible to not see that that common object 
is to subvert, in the public mind, and in practical adminis- 
tration, our old and only standard of free government, that 
"all men are created equal," and to substitute for it some 
different standard. What that substitute is to be is not dif- 
ficult to perceive. It is to deny the equality of men, and to 
assert the natural, moral, and religious right of one class 
to enslave another. 



[Note for a speech, written about 1 October 1858.] 

Suppose it is true that the negro is inferior to the white 
in the gifts of nature; is it not the exact reverse of justice 
that the white should for that reason take from the negro 
any part of the little which he has had given him.^ "Give 

124i 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to him that is needy" is the Christian rule of charity; but 
"Take from him that is needy" is the rule of slavery. 



[Note for a speech, written about 1 October 1858.] 

The sum of j^ro-slavery theology seems to be this: 
"Slavery is not universally right, nor yet universally wrong; 
it is better for some people to be slaves; and, in such cases, 
it is the will of God that they be such." 

Certainly there is no contending against the will of God; 
but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining and applying 
it to particular cases. For instance, we will suppose the 
Rev. Dr. Ross has a slave named Sambo, and the question 
is, "Is it the will of God that Sambo shall remain a slave, 
or be set free?" The Almighty gives no audible answer 
to the question, and his revelation, the Bible, gives none — 
or at most none but such as admits of a squabble as to its 
meaning; no one thinks of asking Sambo's opinion on it. 
So at last it comes to this, that Dj*. Ross is to decide the 
question; and while he considers it, he sits in the shade, 
with gloves on his hands, and subsists on the bread that 
Sambo is earning in the burning sun. If he decides that 
God wills Sambo to continue a slave, he thereby retains his 
own comfortable position; but if he decides that God wills 
Sambo to be free, he thereby has to walk out of the shade, 
throw off his gloves, and delve for his own bread. Will 
Dr. Ross be actuated by the perfect impartiality which has 
ever been considered most favorable to correct decisions? 



[From a note for a speech, written about 1 October 1858.] 

Judge Douglas is a man of large influence. His bare 
opinion goes far to fix the opinions of others. Besides this, 

125 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

thousands hang their hopes upon forcing their opinions to 
agree with his. It is a party necessity with them to say 
they agree with him^ and there is danger they will repeat 
the saying till they really come to believe it. Others dread, 
and shrink from, his denunciations, his sarcasms, and his 
ingenious misrepresentations. The susceptible young hear 
lessons from him, such as their fathers never heard when 
they were young. 

If, by all these means, he shall succeed in molding public 
sentiment to a perfect accordance with his own; in bringing 
all men to indorse all court decisions, without caring 
to know whether they are right or wrong; in bringing 
all tongues to as perfect a silence as his own, as to there 
being any wrong in slavery ; in bringing all to declare, with 
him, that they care not whether slavery be voted down or 
voted up; that if any people want slaves they have a right 
to have them; that negroes are not men; have no part in 
the Declaration of Independence; that there is no moral 
question about slavery; that liberty and slavery are per- 
fectly consistent — indeed, necessary accompaniments; that 
for a strong man to declare himself the superior of a weak 
one, and thereupon enslave the weak one, is the very essence 
of liberty, the most sacred right of self-government; when, 
I say, public sentiment shall be brought to all this, in the 
name of Heaven what barrier will be left against slavery 
being made lawful everywhere.^ Can you find one w^ord 
of his opposed to it ? Can you not find many strongly favor- 
ing it.^* If for his life, for his eternal salvation, he was 
solely striving for that end, could he find any means so 
well adapted to reach the end.^ 

If our presidential election, by a mere plurality, and of 
doubtful significance, brought one Supreme Court decision 
that no power can exclude slavery from a Territory, how 
much more shall a public sentiment, in exact accordance 

126 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

with the sentiments of Judge Douglas^ bring another that 
no power can exclude it from a State? 

And then^ the negro being doomed^ and damned, and for- 
gotten, to everlasting bondage, is the white man quite cer- 
tain that the tyrant demon will not turn upon him too ? 



[From Lincoln's opening speech at the sixth joint debate, 
Quincy, Illinois, 13 October 1858.] 

We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. 
It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a disturbing 
element. It is the opinion of all the great men who have 
expressed an opinion upon it, that it is a dangerous element. 
We keep up a controversy in regard to it. That contro- 
versy necessarily springs from difference of opinion, and 
if we can learn exactly — can reduce to the lowest elements 
— what that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be 
better prepared for discussing the different systems of pol- 
icy that we would propose in regard to that disturbing ele- 
ment. I suggest that the difference of opinion, reduced to 
its lowest terms, is no other than the difference between 
the men who think slavery a wrong and those who do not 
think it wrong. The Republican party think it wrong — 
we think it is a moral, a social, and a political wrong. We 
think it is a wrong not confining itself merely to the per- 
sons or the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong 
which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the existence 
of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we pro- 
pose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. 
We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as we 
can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with it that 
in the run of time there may be some promise of an end 
to it. We have a due regard to the actual presence of it 
amongst us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any 

127 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

satisfactory way, and all the constitutional obligations 
thrown about it. I suppose that in reference both to its 
actual existence in the nation, and to our constitutional ob- 
ligations, we have no right at all to disturb it in the States 
where it exists, and we profess that v/e have no more 
inclination to disturb it than we have the right to do it. 
We go further than that: we don't propose to disturb 
it where, in one instance, we think the Constitution 
would permit us. We think the Constitution would permit 
us to disturb it in the District of Columbia. Still we do 
not propose to do that, unless it should be in terms which 
I don't suppose the nation is very likely soon to agree to — 
the terms of making the emancipation gradual and com- 
pensating the unwilling owners. Where we suppose we have 
the constitutional right, we restrain ourselves in reference 
to the actual existence of the institution and the difficulties 
thrown about it. We also oppose it as an evil so far as it 
seeks to spread itself.. We insist on the policy that shall 
restrict it to its present limits. We don't suppose that in 
doing this we violate anything due to the actual presence 
of the institution, or anything due to the constitutional 
guaranties thrown around it. 

We oppose the Dred Scott decision in a certain way, upon 
which I ought perhaps to address you a few words. We 
do not propose that when Dred Scott has been decided to 
be a slave by the court, we, as a mob, will decide him to 
be free. We do not propose that, when any other one, or 
one thousand, shall be decided by that court to be slaves, 
we will in any violent way disturb the rights of property 
thus settled; but we nevertheless do oppose that decision 
as a political rule, which shall be binding on the voter to vote 
for nobody who thinks it wrong, which shall be binding on 
the members of Congress or the President to favor no meas- 
ure that does not actually concur with the principles of that 

128 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

decision. We do not propose to be bound by it as a political 
rule in that way, because we think it lays the foundation not 
merely of enlarging and spreading out what we consider an 
evil, but it lays the foundation for spreading that evil into 
the States themselves. We propose so resisting it as to have 
it reversed if we can, and a new judicial rule established 
upon this subject. 

I will add this, that if there be any man who does not 
believe that slavery is wrong in the three aspects which I 
have mentioned, or in any one of them, that man is mis- 
placed and ought to leave us. While, on the other hand, 
if there be any man in the Republican party who is impa- 
tient over the necessity springing from its actual presence, 
and is impatient of the constitutional guaranties thrown 
around it, and would act in disregard of these, he too is 
misplaced, standing with us. He will find his place some- 
where else; for we have a due regard, so far as we are 
capable of understanding them, for all these things. This, 
gentlemen, as well as I can give it, is a plain statement of 
our principles in all their enormity. 

I will say now that there is a sentiment in the country 
contrary to me — a sentiment which holds that slavery is not 
wrong, and therefore it goes for the policy that does not 
propose dealing with it as a wrong. That policy is the 
Democratic policy, and that sentiment is the Democratic 
sentiment. If there be a doubt in the mind of any one of 
this vast audience that this is really the central idea of 
the Democratic party, in relation to this subject, I ask him 
to bear with me while I state a few things tending, as I 
think, to prove that proposition. In the first place, the 
leading man — I think I may do my friend Judge Douglas 
the honor of calling him such — advocating the present 
Democratic policy never himself says it is wrong. He has 
the high distinction, so far as I know, of never having said 

129 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

slavery is either right or wrong. Almost everybody else 
says one or the other^ but the judge never does. If there 
be a man in the Democratic party who thinks it is wrong, 
and yet clings to that party, I suggest to him in the first 
place that his leader don't talk as he does, for he never 
says that it is wrong. In the second place, I suggest to 
him that if he will examine the policy proposed to be car- 
ried forward, he will find that he carefully excludes the 
idea that there is anything wrong in it. If you will ex- 
amine the arguments that are made on it, you will find 
that every one carefully excludes the idea that there 
is anything wrong in slavery. Perhaps that Democrat 
who says he is as much opposed to slavery as I am, will 
tell me that I am wrong about this. I wish him to 
examine his own course in regard to this matter a mo- 
ment, and then see if his opinion will not be changed a 
little. You say it is wrong; but don't you constantly object 
to anybody else saying so? Do you not constantly argue 
that this is not the right place to oppose it? You say it 
must not be opposed in the free States, because slavery is 
not there; it must not be opposed in the slave States, be- 
cause it is there ; it must not be opposed in politics, because 
that will make a fuss ; it must not be opposed in the pulpit, 
because it is not religion. Then where is the place to oppose 
it? There is no suitable place to oppose it. There is no 
plan in the country to oppose this evil overspreading the 
continent, which you say yourself is coming. Frank Blair 
and Gratz Brown tried to get up a system of gradual eman- 
cipation in Missouri, had an election in August, and got 
beat; and you, Mr. Democrat, threw up your hat and hal- 
loed, "Hurrah for Democracy!" 

So I say again, that in regard to the arguments that are 
made, when Judge Douglas says he "don't care whether 
slavery is voted up or voted down," whether he means that 

130 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as an individual expression of sentiment, or only as a sort 
of statement of his views on national policy, it is alike true 
to say that he can thus argue logically if he don't see any- 
thing wrong in it; but he cannot say so logically if he admits 
that slavery is wrong. He cannot say that he would as soon 
see a wrong voted up as voted down. When Judge Douglas 
says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, they 
have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical if there is 
nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it 
is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right 
to do wrong. When he says that slave property and horse 
and hog property are alike to be allowed to go into the 
Territories, upon the principles of equality, he is reasoning 
truly if there is no difference between them as property; 
but if the one is property, held rightfully, and the other 
is wrong, then there is no equality between the right and 
wrong; so that^ turn it in any way you can, in all the argu- 
ments sustaining the Democratic policy, and in that policy 
itself, there is a careful, studied exclusion of the idea that 
there is anything wrong in slavery. Let us understand this. 
I am not, just here, trying to prove that we are right and 
they are wrong. I have been stating where we and they 
stand, and trying to show what is the real difference be- 
tween us; and I now say that whenever we can get the 
question distinctly stated,— can get all these men who be- 
lieve that slavery is in some of these respects wrong, to 
stand and act with us in treating it as a wrong, — then, and 
not till then, I think, will we in some way come to an end 
of this slavery agitation. 



131 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[From Lincoln's rejoinder at the sixth joint debate_, Quincy, 
Illnois, 13 October 1858.] 

I wish to return to Judge Douglas my profound thanks 
for his public annunciation here to-day to be put on record, 
that his system of policy in regard to the institution of 
slavery contemplates that it shall last forever. We are get- 
ting a little nearer the true issue of this controversy^, and 
I am profoundly grateful for this one sentence. Judge 
Douglas asks you, "Why cannot the institution of slavery, 
or rather, why cannot the nation, part slave and part free, 
continue as our fathers made it forever ?" In the first place, 
I insist that our fathers did not make this nation half slave 
and half free, or part slave and part free. I insist that 
they found the institution of slavery existing here. They 
did not make it so, but they left it so because they knew of 
no way to get rid of it at that time. When Judge Douglas 
undertakes to say that, as a matter of choice, the fathers 
of the government made this nation part slave and part free, 
he assumes what is historically a falsehood. More than 
that: when the fathers of the government cut off the source 
of slavery by the abolition of the slave-trade, and adopted 
a system of restricting it from the new Territories where 
it had not existed, I maintain that they placed it where 
they understood, and all sensible men understood, it was 
in the course of ultimate extinction ; and when Judge Doug- 
las asks me why it cannot continue as our fathers made it, 
I ask him why he and his friends could not let it remain 
as our fathers made it.^ 

It is precisely all I ask of him in relation to the insti- 
tion of slavery, that it shall be placed upon the basis that 
our fathers placed it upon. Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, 
once said, and truly said, that when this government was 

132 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

established, no one expected the institution of slavery to last 
until this day; and that the men who formed this govern- 
ment were wiser and better than the men of these days; 
but the men of these days had experience which the fathers 
had not, and that experience had taught them the invention 
of the cotton-gin, and this had made the perpetuation of 
the institution of slavery a necessity in this country. Judge 
Douglas could not let it stand upon the basis where our 
fathers placed it, but removed it, and put it upon the cotton- 
gin basis. It is a question, therefore, for him and his friends 
to answer — why they could not let it remain where the 
fathers of the government originally placed it. 

[From Lincoln's reply at the seventh and last joint debate, 
Alton, Illinois, 15 October 1858.] 

[Judge Douglas] says he "don't care whether [slavery] is 
voted up or down" in the Territories. I do not care my- 
self, in dealing with that expression, whether it is intended 
to be expressive of his individual sentiments on the subject, 
or only of the national policy he desires to have established. 
It is alike valuable for my purpose. Any man can say 
that who does not see anything wrong in slavery, but no 
man can logically say it who does see a wrong in it ; because 
no man can logically say he don't care whether a wrong 
is voted up or voted down. He may say he don't care 
whether an indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he 
must logically have a choice between a right thing and a 
wrong thing. He contends that whatever community wants 
slaves has a right to have them. So they have if it is not 
a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have 
a right to do wrong. He says that, upon the score of equal- 
ity, slaves should be allowed to go into a new Territory 
like other property. This is strictly logical if there is no 

133 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

difference between it and other property. If it and other 
property are equal, his argument is entirely logical. But if 
you insist that one is wrong and the other right, there is no 
use to institute a comparison between right and wrong. You 
may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from be- 
ginning to end, whether in the shape it takes on the statute- 
book, in the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in 
the shape it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes 
in short maxim-like arguments — it everywhere carefully ex- 
cludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it. 

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue 
in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas 
and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between 
these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the 
world. They are the two principles that have stood face 
to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue 
to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, 
and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same 
principle in jvhatever shape it develops itself. It is the 
same spirit that says, "You toil and work and earn bread, 
and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether 
from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the peoi3le 
of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or 
from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another 
race, it is the same tyrannical principle. I was glad to 
express my gratitude at Quincy, and I reexpress it here 
to Judge Douglas — that he looks to no end of the institution 
of slavery. That will help the people to see where the 
struggle really is. It will hereafter place with us all men 
who really do wish the wrong may have an end. And when- 
ever we can get rid of the fog which obscures the real ques- 
tion, — when we can get Judge Douglas and his friends to 
avow a policy looking to its perpetuation, — we can get out 
from among them that class of men and bring them to the 

134 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

side of those who treat it as a wrong. Then there will soon 
be an end of it, and that end will be its "ultimate extinction." 
Whenever the issue can be distinctly made, and all extra- 
neous matter thrown out, so that men can fairly see the real 
difference between the parties, this controversy will soon 
be settled, and it will be done peaceably too. There will 
be no war, no violence. It will be placed again where the 
wisest and best men of the world placed it. Brooks of South 
Carolina once declared that when this Constitution was 
framed, its framers did not look to the institution existing 
until this day. When he said this, I think he stated a fact 
that is fully borne out by the history of the times. But he 
also said they were better and wiser men than the men of 
these days ; yet the men of these days had experience which 
they had not, and by the invention of the cotton-gin it be- 
came a necessity in this country that slavery should be per- 
petual. I now say that, willingly or unwillingly, purposely 
or without purpose. Judge Douglas has been the most prom- 
inent instrument in changing the position of the institution 
of slavery, — which the fathers of the government expected 
to come to an end ere this, — and putting it upon Brooks's 
cotton-gin basis — placing it where he openly confesses he 
has no desire there shall ever be an end of it. 



[Letter to N. B. Judd, Springfield, Illinois, 16 November 

1856.] 

Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th is just received. I wrote 
you the same day. As to the pecuniary matter, I am will- 
ing to pay according to my ability; but I am the poorest 
hand living to get others to pay. I have been on expenses 
so long without earning anything that I am absolutely with- 
out money now for even household purposes. Still, if you 
can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me toward 

135 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

discharging the debt of the committee^ I will allow it when 
you and I settle the private matter between us. This^ with 
what I have already paid_, and with an outstanding note 
of mine^ will exceed my subscription of five hundred dollars. 
Tliis^ too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the 
campaign, all of which being added to my loss of time and 
business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off in 
[this] world's goods than I ; but as I had the post of honor, 
it is not for me to be over nice. You are feeling badly, — 
"And this too shall pass away," never fear. 



[Letter to Henry Ashbury, Springfield, Illinois, 19 Novem- 
ber 1858.] 

Dear Sir: Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. 
The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not 
be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred de- 
feats. Douglas had the ingenuity to be supported in the 
late contest both as the best means to break down and to 
uphold the slave interest. No ingenuity can keep these an- 
tagonistic elements in harmony long. Another explosion 
will soon come. 



[From a letter to A. G. Henry, Springfield, Illinois, 
19 November 1858.] 

I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing 
on the great and durable question of the age, which I could 
have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of 
view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some 
marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after 
I am gone. 



136 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a lecture delivered in neighboring towns in 1859 and 
before the Springfield library association 22 February 
I860. From the autograph manuscript in the Lincoln 
collection of Charles F. Gunther^ Esq.^ Chicago.] 

We have all heard of Young America. He is the most 
current youth of the age. Some think him conceited and ar- 
rogant ; but has he not reason to entertain a rather extensive 
opinion of himself.'^ Is he not the inventor and owner of 
the present, and sole hope of the future.^ Men and things, 
everywhere, are ministering unto him. Look at his apparel, 
and you shall see cotton fabrics from Manchester and 
Lowell ; flax linen from Ireland ; wool cloth from Spain ; silk 
from France; furs from the arctic region; with a buffalo- 
robe from the Rocky Mountains, as a general outsider. At 
his table, besides plain bread and meat made at home, are 
sugar from Louisiana, coffee and fruits from the tropics, 
salt from Turk's Island, fish from Newfoundland, tea from 
China, and sj^ices from the Indies. The whale of the Pa- 
cific furnishes his candle-light, he has a diamond ring from 
Brazil, a gold watch from California, and a Spanish cigar 
from Havana. He not only has a present supply of all 
these, and much more; but thousands of hands are engaged 
in producing fresh supplies, and other thousands in bring- 
ing them to him. The iron horse is panting and impatient 
to carry him everywhere in no time ; and the lightning stands 
ready harnessed to take and bring his tidings in a trifle less 
than no time. He owns a large part of the world, by right 
of possessing it, and all the rest by right of wanting it, 
and intending to have it. As Plato had for the immortality 
of the soul, so Young America has "a pleasing hope, a fond 
desire — a longing after" territory. He has a great passion 
— a perfect rage — for the "new" ; particularly new men for 

137 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

office, and the new earth mentioned in the Revelations, in 
which, being no more sea, there must be about three times 
as much land as in the present. He is a great friend of 
humanity; and his desire for land is not selfish, but merely 
an impulse to extend the area of freedom. He is very 
anxious to fight for the liberation of enslaved nations and 
colonies, provided, always, they have land, and have not any 
liking for his interference. As to those who have no land, and 
would be glad of help from any quarter, he considers they 
can aif ord to wait a few hundred years longer. In knowledge 
he is particularly rich. He knows all that can possibly be 
known; inclines to believe in spiritual rappings, and is the 
unquestioned inventor of "Manifest Destiny." His horror 
is for all that is old, particularly "Old Fogy"; and if there 
be anything old which he can endure^ it is only old whisky 
and old tobacco. 

If the said Young America really is, as he claims to be, 
the owner of all present, it must be admitted that he has 
considerable advantage of Old Fogy. Take, for instance, 
the first of all fogies. Father Adam. There he stood, a very 
perfect physical man, as poets and painters inform us; 
but he must have been very ignorant, and simple in his 
habits. He had had no sufficient time to learn much by 
observation, and he had no near neighbors to teach him any- 
thing. No part of his breakfast had been brought from 
the other side of the world; and it is quite probable he had 
no conception of the world having any other side. In all 
these things, it is very plain, he was no equal of Young 
America; the most that can be said is, that according to 
his chance he may have been quite as much of a man as 
his very self-complacent descendant. Little as was what 
he knew, let the youngster discard all he has learned from 
others, and then show, if he can, any advantage on his side. 
In the way of land and live-stock, Adam was quite in the 

138 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ascendant. He had dominion over all the earth, and all 
the living things upon and round about it. The land has 
been sadly divided out since ; but never f ret. Young America 
will re-annex it. . . . 

What one observes, and would himself infer nothing 
from, he tells to another, and that other at once sees a val- 
uable hint in it. A result is thus reached which neither 
alone would have arrived at. And this reminds me of what 
I passed unnoticed before, that the very first invention was 
a joint operation. Eve having shared with Adam the getting 
up of the apron. And, indeed, judging from the fact that 
sewing has come down to our times as "woman's work," it 
is very probable she took the leading part, — he, perhaps, 
doing no more than to stand by and thread the needle. 
That proceeding may be reckoned as the mother of all 
"sewing-societies," and the first and most perfect "World's 
Fair," all inventions and all inventors then in the world 
being on the spot. 

[From a speech at Chicago on the night of the municipal 
election 1 March 1859-] 

I do not wish to be misunderstood upon this subject of 
slavery in this country. I suppose it may long exist; and 
perhaps the best way for it to come to an end peaceably 
is for it to exist for a length of time. But I say that the 
spread and strengthening and perpetuation of it is an en- 
tirely different proposition. There we should in every way 
resist it as a wrong, treating it as a wrong, with the fixed 
idea that it must and will come to an end. If we do not 
allow ourselves to be allured from the strict path of our 
duty by such a device as shifting our ground and throwing 
us into the rear of a leader who denies our first principle, 
denies that there is an absolute wrong in the institution of 

139 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

slavery^ then the future of the Republican cause is safe, 
and victory is assured. You Republicans of Illinois have 
deliberately taken your ground; you have heard the whole 
subject discussed again and again; you have stated your 
faith in platforms laid down in a State convention and in 
a national convention; you have heard and talked over and 
considered it until you are now all of opinion that you are 
on a ground of unquestionable right. All you have to do 
is to keep the faith, to remain steadfast to the right, to 
stand by your banner. Nothing should lead you to leave 
your guns. Stand together, ready, with match in hand. 
Allow nothing to turn you to the right or to the left. Re- 
member how long you have been in setting out on the true 
course; how long you have been in getting your neighbors 
to understand and believe as you now do. Stand by your 
principles, stand by your guns, and victory, complete and 
permanent, is sure at the last. 

[Letter to H. L. Pierce and others, Springfield, Illinois, 

6 April 1859.] 

Gentlemen: Your kind note inviting me to attend a fes- 
tival in Boston, on the 28th instant, in honor of the birthday 
of Thomas Jefferson, was duly received. My engagements 
are such that I cannot attend. 

Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great 
political parties were first formed in this country, that 
Thomas Jefferson was the head of one of them and Boston 
the headquarters of the other, it is both curious and interest- 
ing that those supposed to descend politically from the 
party opposed to Jefferson should now be celebrating his 
birthday in their own original seat of empire, while those 
claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased to 
breathe his name everywhere. 

140 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed 
ui^on its supposed superior devotion to the personal rights 
of men, holding the rights of property to be secondary only, 
and greatly inferior, and assuming that the so-called 
Democracy of to-day are the Jefferson, and their opponents 
the anti- Jefferson, party, it will be equally interesting to 
note how completely the two have changed hands as to the 
principle upon which they were originally supposed to be 
divided. The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one 
man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another 
man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are 
for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the 
man before the dollar. 

I remember being once much amused at seeing two par- 
tially intoxicated men engaged in a fight with their great- 
coats on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless con- 
test, ended in each having fought himself out of his own 
coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties 
of this day are really identical with the two in the days of 
Jefferson and Adams, they have performed the same feat 
as the two drunken men. 

But, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the prin- 
ciples of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. 
One would state with great confidence that he could con- 
vince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid 
are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one 
who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles 
of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. 
And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show 
of success. One dashingly calls them "glittering generali- 
ties." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies." And 
others insidiously argue that they apply to "superior races." 
These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object 
and effect — the supplanting the principles of free govern- 

141 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ment, and restoring those of classification^ caste, and legit- 
imacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads 
plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the 
miners and sappers of returning despotism. We must re- 
pulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world 
of compensation; and he who would be no slave must con- 
sent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others 
deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, can- 
not long retain it. All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, 
in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national inde- 
pendence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and 
capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document 
an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and 
so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days 
it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very har- 
bingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. 

[Letter to T. J. Pickett, Springfield, Illinois, 16 April 

1859.] 

My dear Sir: Yours of the ISth is just received. My 
engagements are such that I cannot at any very early day 
visit Rock Island to deliver a lecture, or for any other 
object. As to the other matter you kindly mention, I must 
in candor say I do not think myself fit for the presidency. 
I certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial 
friends think of me in that connection; but I really think 
it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as you 
suggest, should be made. Let this be considered confidential. 

[From a letter to M. W. Delahay, 14 May 1859.] 

You will probably adopt resolutions in the nature of 
a platform. I think the only temptation will be to 

142 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lower the Republican standard in order to gather recruits. 
In my judgment such a step would be a serious mistake, and 
open a gap through which more would pass out than pass 
in. And this would be the same whether the letting down 
should be in deference to Douglasism or to the Southern 
opposition element; either would surrender the object of 
the Republican organization — the preventing of the spread 
and nationalization of slavery. This object surrendered, 
the organization would go to pieces. I do not mean by this 
that no Southern man must be placed upon our national 
ticket in I860. There are many men in the slave States 
for any one of whom I could cheerfully vote to be either 
President or Vice-President, provided he would enable me 
to do so with safety to the Republican cause, without low- 
ering the Republican standard. This is the indispensable 
condition of a union with us ; it is idle to talk of any other. 
Any otlier would be as fruitless to the South as distasteful 
to the North, the whole ending in common defeat. Let a 
union be attempted on the basis of ignoring the slavery 
question, and magnifying other questions which the people 
are just now not caring about, and it will result in gaining 
no single electoral vote in the South, and losing every one 
in the North. 



[Letter to Dr. Theodore Canisius, Springfield, Illinois, 
17 May 1859.] 

Dear Sir: Your note asking, in behalf of yourself and 
other German citizens, whether I am for or against the 
constitutional provision in regard to naturalized citizens, 
lately adopted by Massachusetts, and whether I am for or 
against a fusion of the Republicans, and other opposition 
elements, for the canvass of I860, is received. 

Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State; and 

143 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

it is no privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. 
Stilly if from what she has done an inference is sought to 
be drawn as to what I would do, I may without impropriety 
speak out. I say, then, that, as I understand the Massa- 
chusetts provision, I am against its adoption in Illinois, 
or in any other place where I have a right to oppose it. 
Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the 
elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to de- 
grade them. I have some little notoriety for commiserat- 
ing the oppressed negro; and I should be strangely incon- 
sistent if I could favor any project for curtailing the ex- 
isting rights of white men, even though born in "different 
lands, and speaking different languages from myself. As 
to the matter of fusion, I am for it, if it can be had on 
Republican grounds ; and I am not for it on any other terms. 
A fusion on any other terms would be as foolish as unprin- 
cipled. It would lose the whole North, while the common 
enemy would still carry the whole South. The question of 
men is a different one. There are good patriotic men and 
able statesmen in the South whom I would cheerfully sup- 
port, if they would now place themselves on Republican 
ground, but I am against letting down the Republican 
standard a hair's-breadth. I have written this hastily, but 
I believe it answers your questions substantially. 

[Letter to Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Springfield, Illinois, 
6 July 1859.] 

My dear Sir: I much regret not seeing you while you 
were here among us. Before learning that you were to be 
at Jacksonville on the 4th, I had given my word to be at 
another place. Besides a strong desire to make your per- 
sonal acquaintance, I was anxious to speak with you on 
politics a little more fully than I can well do in a letter. 

144 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

My main object in such conversation would be to hedge 
against divisions in the Republican ranks generally, and 
particularly for the contest of I860. The point of danger 
is the temptation in different localities to "platform" for 
something which will be popular just there, but which, nev- 
ertheless, will be a firebrand elsewhere, and especially in a 
national convention. As instances, the movement against 
foreigners in Massachusetts; in New Hampshire, to make 
obedience to the fugitive-slave law punishable as a crime; 
in Ohio, to repeal the fugitive-slave law; and squatter sov- 
ereignty, in Kansas. In these things there is explosive mat- 
ter enough to blow up half a dozen national conventions, 
if it gets into them; and what gets very rife outside of con- 
ventions is very likely to find its way into them. What is 
desirable, if possible, is that in every local convocation of 
Republicans a point should be made to avoid everything 
which will disturb Republicans elsewhere. Massachusetts 
Republicans should have looked beyond their noses, and 
then they could not have failed to see that tilting against 
foreigners would ruin us in the whole Northwest. New 
Hampshire and Ohio should forbear tilting against the 
fugitive-slave law in such a way as to utterly overwhelm 
us in Illinois with the charge of enmity to the Constitution 
itself. Kansas, in her confidence that she can be saved to 
freedom on "squatter sovereignty," ought not to forget that 
to prevent the spread and nationalization of slavery is a 
national concern, and must be attended to by the nation. 
In a word, in every locality we should look beyond our noses ; 
and at least say nothing on points where it is probable we 
shall disagree. I write this for your eye only; hoping, how- 
ever, if you see danger as I think I do, you will do what 
you can to avert it. Could not suggestions be made to lead- 
ing men in the State and congressional conventions, and so 
avoid, to some extent at least, these apples of discord.^ 

145 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to Hon. Samuel Galloway, Springfield, Illinois, 

28 July 1859.] 

My dear Sir: Your very complimentary, not to say flat- 
tering, letter of the 23d inst. is received. Dr. Reynolds had 
induced me to expect you here; and I was disappointed 
not a little by your failure to come. And yet I fear you 
have formed an estimate of me which can scarcely be sus- 
tained on a personal acquaintance. 

Two things done by the Ohio Republican convention — 
the repudiation of Judge Swan, and the "plank" for a re- 
peal of the fugitive-slave law — I very much regretted. 
These two things are of a piece; and they are viewed bj" 
many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, as a struggle 
against, and in disregard of, the Constitution itself. And 
it is the very thing that will greatly endanger our cause, 
if it be not kept out of our national convention. There 
is another thing our friends are doing which gives me some 
uneasiness. It is their leaning toward "popular sover- 
eignty." There are three substantial objections to this. 
First, no party can command respect which sustains this 
year what it opposed last. Secondly, Douglas (who is the 
most dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious 
one) would have little support in the North, and by conse- 
quence, no capital to trade on in the South, if it were not 
for his friends thus magnifying him and his humbug. But 
lastly, and chiefly, Douglas's popular sovereignty, accepted 
by the public mind as a just principle, nationalizes slavery, 
and revives the African slave-trade inevitably. Taking 
slaves into new Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, 
are identical things, identical rights or identical wrongs, 
and the argument which establishes one will establish the 
other. Try a thousand years for a sound reason why Con- 

146 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

gress shall not hinder the people of Kansas from having 
slaves, and when you have found it, it will be an equally 
good one why Congress should not hinder the people of 
Georgia from importing slaves from Africa. 

As to Governor Chase, I have a kind side for him. He 
was one of the few distinguished men of the nation who 
gave us, in Illinois, their sympathy last year. I never 
saw him, but suppose him to be able and right-minded; but 
still he may not be the most suitable as a candidate for the 
presidency. 

I must say I do not think myself fit for the presidency. 
As you propose a correspondence with me, I shall look for 
your letters anxiously. 

[From a speech at Columbus, Ohio, 16 September 1859-] 

In that contest [with Douglas] I did not any time say 
I was in favor of negro suffrage; but the absolute proof 
that twice — once substantially and once expressly — I de- 
clared against it. Having shown you this, there remains 
but a word of comment upon that newspaper article. It 
is this : that I presume the editor of that paper is an honest 
and truth-loving man, and that he will be greatl}^ obliged 
to me for furnishing him thus early an opportunity to cor- 
rect the misrepresentation he has made, before it has run 
so long that malicious people can call him a liar. 

[From a speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, 17 September 1859-] 

I should not wonder if there are some Kentuckians about 
this audience; we are close to Kentucky; and whether that 
be so or not, we are on elevated ground, and by speaking 
distinctly I should not wonder if some of the Kentuckians 
would hear me on the other side of the river. For that 

147 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

reason I propose to address a portion of what I have to 
say to the Kentuckians. 

I say^ then^ in the first place^ to the Kentuckians, that 
I am what they call, as I understand it, a "Black Repub- 
lican." I think slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. 
I desire that it should be no further spread in these United 
States, and I should not object if it should gradually ter- 
minate in the whole Union. While I say this for myself, 
1 say to you Kentuckians that I understand you diifer 
radically with me upon this proposition; that you believe 
slavery is a good thing; that slavery is right; that it ought 
to be extended and perpetuated in this Union. Now, there 
being this broad difference between us, I do not pretend, 
in addressing myself to you Kentuckians, to attempt prose- 
lyting you; that would be a vain effort. I do not enter 
upon it. I only propose to try to show you that you ought 
to nominate for the next presidency, at Charleston, my dis- 
tinguished friend. Judge Douglas. In all that there is no 
real difference between you and him; I understand he is 
as sincerely for you, and more wisely for you, than you are 
for yourselves. I will try to demonstrate that proposition. 
Understand now, I say that I believe he is as sincerely for 
you, and more wisely for you, than you are for your- 
selves. 

In Kentucky, perhaps, — in many of the slave States cer- 
tainly, — you are trying to establish the rightfulness of 
slavery by reference to the Bible. You are trying to show 
that slavery existed in the Bible times by divine ordinance. 
Now Douglas is wiser than you for your own benefit, upon 
that subject. Douglas knows that whenever you establish 
that slavery was right by the Bible, it will occur that that 
slavery was the slavery of the white man, — of men without 
reference to color, — and he knows very well that you may 
entertain that idea in Kentucky as much as you please, but 

148 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

you will never win any Northern support upon it. He 
makes a wiser argument for you; he makes the argument 
that the slavery of the black man, the slavery of the man 
who has a skin of a different color from your own, is right. 
He thereby brings to your support Northern voters who 
could not for a moment be brought by your own argument 
of the Bible-right of slavery. Will you not give him credit 
for that.^ Will you not say that in this matter he is more 
wisely for you than you are for yourselves } 

Now, having established with his entire party this doc- 
trine, — having been entirely successful in that branch of 
his efforts in your behalf, — he is ready for another. 

At this same meeting at Memphis, he declared that in 
all contests between the negro and the white man, he was 
for the white man, but that in all questions between the 
negro and the crocodile he was for the negro. He did not 
make that declaration accidentally at Memphis. He made 
it a great many times in the canvass in Illinois last year 
(though I don't know that it was reported in any of his 
speeches there; but he frequently made it). I believe he 
repeated it at Columbus, and I should not wonder if he re- 
peated it here. It is, then, a deliberate way of expressing 
himself upon that subject. It is a matter of mature delib- 
eration with him thus to express himself upon that point 
of his case. It therefore requires some deliberate attention. 

The first inference seems to be that if you do not enslave 
the negro you are wronging the white man in some way 
or other; and that whoever is opposed to the negro being 
enslaved is, in some way or other, against the white man. 
Is not that a falsehood.^ If there was a necessary conflict 
between the white man and the negro, I should be for the 
white man as much as Judge Douglas; but I say there is 
no such necessary conflict. I say that there is room enough 
for us all to be free, and that it not only does not wrong 

149 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

the white man that the negro should be free, but it positively 
wrongs the mass of the white men that the negro should 
be enslaved; that the mass of white men are really injured 
by the effects of slave-labor in the vicinity of the fields of 
their own labor. 

But I do not desire to dwell upon this branch of the 
question more than to say that this assumption of his is 
false, and I do hope that that fallacy will not long prevail 
in the minds of intelligent white men. At all events, you 
ought to thank Judge Douglas for it. It is for your benefit 
it is made. 

The other branch of it is, that in a struggle between the 
negro and the crocodile, he is for the negro. Well, I don't 
know that there is any struggle between the negro and the 
crocodile, either. I suppose that if a crocodile (or, as we 
old Ohio River boatmen used to call them, alligators) should 
come across a white man, he would kill him if he could, and 
so he would a negro. But what, at last, is this proposition ? 
I believe that it is a sort of projDOsition in proportion, which 
may be stated thus: "As the negro is to the white man, 
so is the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro may right- 
fully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white 
man may rightfully treat the negro as a beast or reptile." 
That is really the point of all that argument of his. 

Now, my brother Kentuckians, who believe in this, you 
ought to thank Judge Douglas for having put that in a 
much more taking way than any of yourselves have 
done. 

I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for 
the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean 
to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, 
Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you 
alone, and in no way to interfere with your institution; to 
abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution, and, 

150 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat 
you, so far as degenerated men (if we have degenerated) 
may, according to the example of those noble fathers- 
Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remem- 
ber that you are as good as we; that there is no difference 
between us other than the difference of circumstances. We 
mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have 
as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we 
claim to have, and treat you accordingly. We mean to 
marry your girls when we have a chance — ^the white ones, 
I mean, and I have the honor to inform you that I once did 
have a chance in that way. ^ 

I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know, 
now, when that thing takes place, what do you mean to 
do ? I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide the 
Union whenever a Republican or anything like it is elected 
President of the United States. [A voice: "That is so."] 
"That is so," one of them says; I wonder if he is a Ken- 
tuckian? [A voice: "He is a Douglas man."] Well, then, 
I want to know what you are going to do with your half 
of it? Are you going to split the Ohio down through, and 
push your half off a piece? Or are you going to keep it 
right alongside of us outrageous fellows ? Or are you going 
to build up a wall some way between your country and ours, 
by which that movable property of yours can't come over 
here any more, to the danger of your losing it? Do you 
think you can better yourselves on that subject by leaving 
us here under no obligation whatever to return those speci- 
mens of your movable property that come hither? You 
have divided the Union because we would not do right with 
you, as you think, upon that subject; when we cease to be 
under obligations to do anything for you, how much better 
off do you think you will be? Will you make war upon us 
and kill us all? Why, gentlemen, I think you are as gallant 

151 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and as brave men as live; that you can fight as bravely in 
a good cause^ man for man, as any other people living; that 
you have shown yourselves capable of this upon various oc- 
casions; but man for man, you are not better than we are, 
and there are not so many of you as there are of us. You 
will never make much of a hand at whipping us. If we 
were fewer in numbers than you, I think that you could 
whip us ; if we were equal it would likely be a drawn battle ; 
but being inferior in numbers, you will make nothing by 
attempting to master us. 

[From notes for speeches delivered in Kansas, 1-5 Decem- 
ber 1859.] 

I say Douglas popular sovereignty; for there is a broad 
distinction between real popular sovereignty and Douglas 
popular sovereignty. That the nation shall control what 
concerns it; that a State, or any minor political community, 
shall control what exclusively concerns it; and that an in- 
dividual shall control what exclusively concerns him, — is a 
real popular sovereignty, which no Republican opposes. 

But this is not Douglas popular sovereignty. Douglas 
popular sovereignty, as a matter of principle, simply is: 
"If one man would enslave another, neither that other nor 
any third man has a right to object." 

Douglas popular sovereignty, as he practically applies 
it, is: "If any organized political community, however new 
and small, would enslave men or forbid their being enslaved 
within its own territorial limits, however the doing the one 
or the other may affect the men sought to be enslaved, or 
the vastly superior number of men who are afterward to 
come within those limits, or the family of communities of 
which it is but a member, or the head of that family, as the 
present and common guardian of the whole — however any 

152 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

or all these are to be affected^ neither any nor all may in- 
terfere." 

This is Douglas popular sovereignty. He has great dif- 
ficulty with it. His speeches and letters and essays and 
explanations explanatory of explanations explained upon it^ 
are legion. The most lengthy^ and as I suppose the most 
maturely considered, is that recently published in "Harper's 
Magazine." It has two leading objects: the first, to ap- 
propriate the authority and reverence due the great and good 
men of the Revolution to his popular sovereignty; and, sec- 
ondly, to show that the Dred Scott decision has not entirely 
squelched his popular sovereignty. 

Before considering these main objects, I wish to consider 
a few minor points of the copyright essay. 

Last year Governor Seward and myself, at different times 
and occasions, exjaressed the opinion that slavery is a dur- 
able element of discord, and that we shall not have peace 
with it until it either masters or is mastered by the free 
principle. This gave great offense to Judge Douglas, and 
his denunciations of it, and absurd inferences from it, have 
never ceased. Almost at the very beginning of the copy- 
right essay he quotes the language respectively of Seward 
and myself — not quite accurately, but substantially, in my 
case — upon this point, and repeats his absurd and extrava- 
gant inference. For lack of time I omit much which I 
might say here with propriety, and content myself with two 
remarks only upon this point. The first is, that inasmuch 
as Douglas in this very essay tells us slavery agitation began 
in this country in 1699^ and has not yet ceased; has lasted 
through a hundred and sixty years, through ten entire gen- 
erations of men, — it might have occurred to even him that 
slavery in its tendency to agitation and discord has some- 
thing slightly durable about it. The second remark is that 
Judge Douglas might have noted, if he would, while he 

153 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

was diving so deeply into history, the historical fact that 
the only comparative peace we have had with slavery dur- 
ing that hundred and sixty years was in the period from 
the Revolution to 1820, precisely the period through which 
we were closing out the African slave-trade, abolishing 
slavery in several of the States, and restraining the spread 
of it into new ones by the ordinance of '87, precisely the 
period in which the public mind had reason to rest, and did 
rest, in the belief that slavery was in course of ultimate 
extinction. 

Another point, which for the present I shall touch only 
hastily, is Judge Douglas's assumption that the States and 
Territories differ only in the fact that the States are in 
the Union, and the Territories are not in it. But if this 
be the only difference, why not instantly bring the Terri- 
tories in.^ Why keep them out.'' Do you say they are un- 
fitted for it.^ What unfits them? Especially what unfits 
them for any duty in the Union, after they are fit, if they 
choose, to plant the soil they sparsely inhabit with slavery, 
beyond the power of their millions of successors to eradicate 
it, and to the durable discord of the Union? What func- 
tion of sovereignty, out of the Union or in it, is so por- 
tentous as this? What function of government requires 
such perfect maturity, in numbers and everything else, 
among those who exercise it? It is a concealed assumption 
of Douglas's popular sovereignty that slavery is a little, 
harmless, indifferent thing, having no wrong in it, and no 
power for mischief about it. If all men looked upon it as 
he does, his policy in regard to it might do. But neither 
all nor half the world so look upon it. 

Near the close of the essay in ''Harper's Magazine" 
Douglas tells us that his popular sovereignty pertains to 
a people only after they are regularly organized into a po- 
litical community; and that Congress in its discretion must 

154 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

decide when they are fit in point of numbers to be so or- 
gianized. Now I should like for him to point out in the 
Constitution any clause conferring that discretion upon Con- 
gress, which, when pointed out, will not be equally a power 
in Congress to govern them, in its discretion, till they are 
admitted as a State. Will he try ? He intimates that before 
the exercise of that discretion, their number must be ten, 
fifteen, or twenty thousand. Well, what is to be done for 
them, or with them, or by them, before they number ten 
thousand.^ If any one of them desires to have slaves, is 
any other one bound to help him, or at liberty to hinder 
him? Is it his plan that any time before they reach the 
required numbers, those who are on hand shall be driven 
out as trespassers.^ If so, it will probably be a good while 
before a sufficient number to organize will get in. 

But plainly enough this conceding to Congress the dis- 
cretion as to when a community shall be organized, is a total 
surrender of his popular sovereignty. He says himself it 
does not pertain to a people until they are organized; and 
that when they shall be organized is in the discretion of 
Congress. Suppose Congress shall choose to not organize 
them until they are numerous enough to come into the Union 
as a State. By his own rule, his popular sovereignty is de- 
rived from Congress, and cannot be exercised by the people 
till Congress chooses to confer it. After toiling through 
nineteen mortal pages of "Harper," to show that Congress 
cannot keep the people of a new country from excluding 
slavery, in a single closing paragraph he makes the whole 
thing depend on Congress at last. And should Congress 
refuse to organize, how will that aff'ect the question of 
planting slavery in a new country? If individuals choose 
to plant it, the people cannot prevent them, for they are 
not yet clothed with popular sovereignty. If it be said that 
it cannot be planted, in fact, without protective law, that 

155 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

assertion is already falsified by history ; for it was originally 
planted on this continent without protective law. 

If slavery is right — ordained by the Almighty — on one 
side of a line dividing sister States of a common Union, 
then it is positively wrong to harass and bedevil the owners 
of it with constitutions and laws and prohibitions of it on 
the other side of the line. In short, there is no justification 
for prohibiting slavery anywhere, save only in the assump- 
tion that slavery is wrong; and whenever the sentiment that 
slavery is wrong shall give way in the North, all legal pro- 
hibitions of it will also give way. 

If it be insisted that men may support Douglas's meas- 
ures without adopting his sentiments, let it be tested by what 
is actually passing before us. You can even now find no 
Douglas man who will disavow any one of these sentiments ; 
and none but will actually indorse them if pressed to the 
point. 

Five years ago no living man had placed on record, nor, 
as I believe, verbally expressed, a denial that negroes have 
a share in the Declaration of Independence. Two or three 
years since, Douglas began to deny it ; and now every Doug- 
las man in the nation denies it. 

To the same effect is the absurdity compounded of sup- 
port to the Dred Scott decision, and legislation unfriendly 
to slavery by the Territories — the absurdity which asserts 
that a thing may be lawfully driven from a place, at which 
place it has a lawful right to remain. That absurd position 
will not be long maintained by any one. The Dred Scott 
half of it will soon master the other half. The process will 
probably be about this: some territorial legislature will 
adopt unfriendly legislation; the Supreme Court will de- 
cide that legislation to be unconstitutional, and then the 
advocates of the present compound absurdity will acquiesce 
in the decision. The only effect of that position now is to 

156 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

prepare its advocates for such acquiescence when the time 
comes. Like wood for ox-bows, they are merely being 
soaked in it preparatory to the bending. 

[From an address at Cooper institute, New York, 27 Feb- 
ruary I860.] 

And now, if they would listen,— as I suppose they will 
not,— I would address a few words to the Southern people. 

I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reason- 
able and a just people; and I consider that in the general 
qualities of reason and justice you are not inferior to any 
other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you 
do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no 
better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates 
or murderers, but nothing like it to "Black Republicans." 
In all your contentions with one another, each of you deems 
an unconditional condemnation of "Black Republicanism" 
as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemna- 
tion of us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite— license, 
so to speak— among you to be admitted or permitted to 
speak at all. Now can you or not be prevailed upon to 
pause and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or 
even to yourselves? Bring forward your charges and speci- 
fications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny 

or justify. 

You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an 
issue; and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce 
your proof; and what is it? Why, that our party has no 
existence in your section— gets no votes in your section. 
The fact is substantially true; but does it prove the issue? 
If it does, then in case we should, without change of prin- 
ciple, begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby 
cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion; 

157 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and yet^ are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you 
will probably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, 
for we shall get votes in your section this very year. You 
will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, that your 
proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get no 
votes in your section is a fact of your making, and not of 
ours. And if there be fault in that fact, that fault is pri- 
marily yours, and remains so until you show that we repel 
you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel 
you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours; 
but this brings you to where you ought to have started — to 
a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our 
principle, put in practice, would wrong your section for the 
benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our principle, 
and we with it, are sectional, and are justly opposed and 
denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question of 
whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your 
section; and so meet us as if it were possible tint some- 
thing may be said on our side. Do you accept the challenge ? 
No ! Then you really believe that the principle which "our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live" 
thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse it again 
and again, upon their official oaths, is in fact so clearly 
wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment's 
consideration. 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning 
against sectional parties given by Washington in his Fare- 
well Address. Less than eight years before Washington 
gave that warning, he had, as President of the United States, 
approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the pro- 
hibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which 
act embodied the policy of the government upon that sub- 
ject up to and at the very moment he penned that warning; 
and about one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette 

158 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that he considered that prohibition a wise measure, express- 
ing in the same connection his hope that we should at some 
time have a confederacy of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has 
since arisen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon 
in your hands against us, or in our hands against you? 
Could Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame 
of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon 
you, who repudiate it? We respect that warning of Wash- 
ington, and we commend it to you, together with his ex- 
ample pointing to the right application of it. 

But you say you are conservative — eminently conserva- 
tive — while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something 
of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to 
the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick 
to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in con- 
troversy which was adopted by "our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live"; while you with one 
accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and 
insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree 
among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You 
are divided on new propositions and plans, but you are 
unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the 
fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave- 
trade; some for a congressional slave code for the Terri- 
tories ; some for Congress forbidding the Territories to pro- 
hibit slavery within their limits; some for maintaining 
slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for 
the "gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave 
another, no third man should object," fantastically called 
"popular sovereignty"; but never a man among you is in 
favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal Terri- 
tories, according to the practice of "our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live." Not one of all your 

159 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the 
century within which our government originated. Consider, 
then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, 
and your charge of destructiveness against us, are based 
on the most clear and stable foundations. 

Again, you say we have made the slavery question more 
prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit 
that it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. 
It was not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of 
the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, your innovation; 
and thence comes the greater prominence of the question. 
Would you have that question reduced to its former pro- 
portions? Go back to that old policy. What has been will 
be again, under the same conditions. If you would have 
the peace of the old times, readopt the precepts and policy 
of the old times. 

You charge that we stir up insurrections among your 
slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper's 
Ferry ! John Brown ! ! John Brown was no Republican ; and 
you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Har- 
per's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty 
in that matter, you know it, or you do not know it. If 
you do know it, you are inexcusable for not designating the 
man and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you are 
inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting 
in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make 
the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a charge 
which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious 
slander. 

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided 
or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that 
our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such re- 
sults. We do not believe it. We know we hold no doctrine, 
and make no declaration, which were not held to and made 

160 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

by "our fathers who framed the government under which 
we live." You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this 
affair. When it occurred, some important State elections 
were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the 
belief that, by charging the blame upon us, you could get 
an advantage of us in those elections. The elections came, 
and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. Every Re- 
publican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge 
was a slander, and he was not much inclined by it to cast 
his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declara- 
tions are accompanied with a continual protest against any 
interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about 
your slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. 
True, we do, in common with "our fathers who framed the 
government under which we live," declare our belief that 
slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even 
this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely 
know there is a Republican party. I believe they would 
not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrepresenta- 
tions of us in their hearing. In your political contests among 
yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy 
with Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the 
charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrec- 
tion, blood, and thunder among the slaves. 

Slave insurrections are no more common now than they 
were before the Republican party was organized. What 
induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years 
ago, in which at least three times as many lives were lost as 
at Harper's Ferry? You can scarcely stretch your very 
elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton was "got 
up by Black Republicanism." In the present state of things 
in the United States, I do not think a general, or even a 
very extensive, slave insurrection is possible. The indis- 
pensable concert of action cannot be attained. The slaves 

161 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

have no means of rapid communication ; nor can incendiary 
freemen, black or white, supply it. The explosive materials 
are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can 
be supplied, the indispensable connecting trains. 

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of 
slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, 
at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be 
devised and communicated to twenty individuals before 
some one of them, to save the life of a favorite master or 
mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave 
revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, but a case 
occurring under peculiar circumstances. The gunpowder 
plot of British history, though not connected with slaves, 
was more in point. In that case, only about twenty were 
admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety 
to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by 
consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poisonings 
from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the 
ifield, and local revolts extending to a score or so, will con- 
tinue to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no gen- 
eral insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this 
country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much 
hopes for, such an event, will be alike disappointed. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, 
"It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipa- 
tion and deportation peaceably, and in such slow degrees, 
as that the evil will wear off insensibly ; and their places be, 
pari passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the con- 
trary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shud- 
der at the prospect held up." 

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the 
power of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He 
spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of emancipation, I 
speak of the slaveholding States only. The Federal Gov- 

162 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ernraent, however, as we insist, has the power of restrain- 
ing the extension of the institution — the power to insure 
that a slave insurrection shall never occur on any American 
soil which is now free from slavery. 

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave in- 
surrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a 
revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to partici- 
pate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all 
their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. 
That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many 
attempts, related in history, at the assassination of kings 
and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression 
of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven 
to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in 
little else than his own execution. Orsini's attempt on 
Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's 
Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The 
eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, 
and on New England in the other, does not disprove the 
sameness of the two things. 

And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the 
use of John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like, break up 
the Republican organization.^ Human action can be modi- 
fied to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. 
There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this 
nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes. 
You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling — that sen- 
timent — by breaking up the political organization which 
rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an 
army which has been formed into order in the face of your 
heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you gain 
by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peace- 
ful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel.'' 
What would that other channel probably be.'' Would the 

163 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the 
operation ? 

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to 
a denial of your constitutional rights. 

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be 
palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the 
mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right plainly 
written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no 
such thing. 

When you make these declarations you have a specific 
and well-understood allusion to an assumed constitutional 
right of yours to take slaves into the Federal Territories, 
and to hold them there as property. But no such right is 
specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is 
literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, 
deny that such a right has any existence in the Constitution, 
even by implication. 

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will de- 
stroy the government, unless you be allowed to construe and 
force the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute 
between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. 

This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will 
say the Supreme Court has decided tLe disputed constitu- 
tional question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving 
the lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision, the 
court has decided the question for you in a sort of way. 
The court has substantially said, it is your constitutional 
right to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold 
them there as property. When I say the decision was made 
in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by 
a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing 
with one another in the reasons for making it; that it is so 
made as that its avowed supporters disagree with one an- 
other about its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon 

164 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a mistaken statement of fact — the statement in the opinion 
that "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and ex- 
pressly affirmed in the Constitution." 

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the riglit 
of property in a slave is not "distinctly and expressly af- 
firmed" in it. Bear in mind, the judges do not pledge their 
judicial opinion that such right is impliedly affirmed in the 
Constitution ; but they pledge their veracity that it is "dis- 
tinctly and expressly" affirmed there — "distinctly," that is, 
not mingled with anything else — "expressly," that is, in 
words meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, 
and susceptible of no other meaning. 

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such 
right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would 
be open to others to show that neither the word "slave" nor 
"slavery" is to be found in the Constitution, nor the word 
"property" even, in any connection with language alluding 
to the things slave, or slavery; and that wherever in that 
instrument the slave is alluded to, he is called a "person"; 
and wherever his master's legal right in relation to him is 
alluded to, it is spoken of as "service or labor which may 
be due" — as a debt payable in service or labor. Also it 
would be open to show, by contemporaneous history, that 
this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of speak- 
ing of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the 
Constitution the idea that there could be property in man. 

To show all this is easy and certain. 

When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brouglit 
to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will 
withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the con- 
clusion based upon it? 

And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers who 
framed the government under which we live" — the men who 
made the Constitution — decided this same constitutional 

165 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

question in our favor long ago: decided it without division 
among themselves when making the decision; without di- 
vision among themselves about the meaning of it after it 
was made, and, so far as any evidence is left, without basing 
it upon any mistaken statement of facts. 

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel your- 
selves justified to break up this government unless such a 
court decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to as 
a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you 
will not abide the election of a Republican president! In 
that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; 
and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it 
will be upon us ! That is cool. A highwayman holds a 
pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and 
deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a mur- 
derer !'* 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my 
money — was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; 
but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and 
the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the 
threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can 
scarcely be distinguished in principle. 

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly de- 
sirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at 
peace, and in harmony one with another. Let us Repub- 
licans do our part to have it so. Even though much pro- 
voked, let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. 
Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen 
to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to 
them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly 
can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject 
and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, 
if we can, what will satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally 

166 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

surrendered to them ? We know they will not. In all their 
present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely- 
mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. 
Will it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to 
do with invasions and insurrections.'' We know it will not. 
We so know, because we know we never had anything to 
do with invasions and insurrections; and yet this total ab- 
staining does not exempt us from the charge and the de- 
nunciation. 

The question recurs, What will satisfy them? Simply 
this: we must not only let them alone, but we must some- 
how convince them that we do let them alone. This, we 
know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so 
trying to convince them from the very beginning of our 
organization, but with no success. In all our platforms 
and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to 
let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince 
them. Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that 
they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to 
disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, 
what will convince them ? This, and this only : cease to call 
slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this 
must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. 
Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves 
avowedly with them. Senator Douglas's new sedition law 
must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations 
that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, 
in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their 
fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down 
our free-State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must 
be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before 
they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed 
from us. 

167 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

forever find, their way to Europe by New York, to South 
America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San 
Francisco. But separate our common country into two na- 
tions, as designed by the present rebellion, and every man 
of this great interior region is thereby cut off from some 
one or more of these outlets — not, perhaps, by a physical 
barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations. 

And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line 
may be fixed. Place it between the now free and slave coun- 
try, or place it south of Kentucky or north of Ohio, and 
still the truth remains that none south of it can trade to 
any port or place north of it, and none north of it can trade 
to any port or place south of it, except upon terras dictated 
by a government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, 
and south, are indispensable to the well-being of the people 
inhabiting, and to inhabit, this vast interior region. Which 
of the three may be the best, is no proper question. All are 
better than either; and all of right belong to that people 
and to their successors forever. True to themselves, they 
will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but will vow 
rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the mar- 
ginal regions less interested in these communications to and 
through them to the great outside world. They, too, and 
each of them, must have access to this Egypt of the West 
without paying toll at the crossing of any national 
boundary. 

Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, 
not from the land we inhabit, not from our national home- 
stead. There is no possible severing of this but would mul- 
tiply, and not mitigate, evils among us. In all its adapta^ 
tions and aptitudes it demands union and abhors separation. 
In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however much of 
blood and treasure the separation might have cost. 

Our strife pertains to ourselves — ^to the passing genera- 

268 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tions of men; and it can without convulsion be hushed for- 
ever with the passing of one generation. 

We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget 
that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The 
world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we 
here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving 
freedom to the slave_, we assure freedom to the free — hon- 
orable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We 
shall nobly save or meanly lose the last_, best hope of earth. 
Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way 
is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, 
the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. 



[Letter to army of the Potomac, Washington, 22 Decem- 
ber 1862.] 

To the Army of the Potomac: I have just read your com- 
manding gieneral's report of the battle of Fredericksburg. 
Although you were not successful, the attempt was not an 
error, nor the failure other than accident. The courage with 
which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against 
an intrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success 
with which you crossed and recrossed the river in the face 
of the enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a 
great army, which will yet give victory to the cause of the 
country and of popular government. 

Condoling with the mourners for the dead, and sympa- 
thizing with the severely wounded, I congratulate you that 
the number of both is comparatively so small. 

I tender to you, officers and soldiers, the thanks of the 
nation. 



269 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

effect upon the minds of the owners is that of property, 
and nothing else; it induces them to insist upon all that 
will favorably affect its value as property, to demand laws 
and institutions and a public policy that shall increase and 
secure its value, and make it durable, lasting, and universal. 
The effect on the minds of the owners is to persuade them 
that there is no wrong in it. The slaveholder does not like 
to be considered a mean fellow for holding that species of 
property, and hence he has to struggle within himself, and 
sets about arguing himself into the belief that slavery is 
right. The property influences his mind. The dissenting 
minister who argued some theological point with one of the 
established church was always met by the reply, "I can't 
see it so." He opened the Bible and pointed him to a pas- 
sage, but the orthodox minister replied, "I can't see it so." 
Then he showed him a single word — "Can you see that?" 
"Yes, I see it," was the reply. The dissenter laid a guinea 
over the word, and asked, "Do you see it now.^" So here. 
Whether the owners of this species of property do really 
see it as it is, it is not for me to say; but if they do, they 
see it as it is through two billions of dollars, and that is a 
pretty thick coating. Certain it is that they do not see it 
as we see it. Certain it is that this two thousand million 
of dollars invested in this species of property is all so con- 
centrated that the mind can grasp it at once. This immense 
pecuniary interest has its influence upon their minds. 

But here in Connecticut and at the North slavery does 
not exist, and we see it through no such medium. To us it 
appears natural to think that slaves are human beings ; men, 
not property ; that some of the things, at least, stated about 
men in the Declaration of Independence apply to them as 
well as to us. I say we think, most of us, that this charter 
of freedom applies to the slave as well as to ourselves ; that 
the class of arguments put forward to batter down that idea 

170 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

are also calculated to break down the very idea of free gov- 
ernment^ even for white men^ and to undermine the very 
foundations of free society. We think slavery a great moral 
wrongs and while we do not claim the right to touch it 
where it exists_, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the Terri- 
tories, where our votes will reach it. We think that a re- 
spect for ourselves, a regard for future generations and 
for the God that made us, require that we put down this 
wrong where our votes will properly reach it. We think 
that species of labor an injury to free white men — in short, 
we think slavery a great moral, social, and political evil, 
tolerable only because, and so far as, its actual existence 
makes it necessary to tolerate it, and that beyond that it 
ought to be treated as a wrong. 

Now these two ideas — the property idea that slavery is 
right and the idea that it is wrong — come into collision, and 
do actually produce that irrepressible conflict which Mr. 
Seward has been so roundly abused for mentioning. The 
two ideas conflict, and must forever conflict. 

Again, in its political aspect does anything in any way 
endanger the perpetuity of this Union but that single 
thing — slavery? Many of our adversaries are anxious to 
claim that they are specially devoted to the Union, and take 
pains to charge upon us hostility to the Union. Now we 
claim that we are the only true Union men, and we put 
to them this one proposition: What ever endangered this 
Union save and except slavery? Did any other thing ever 
cause a moment's fear ? All men must agree that this thing 
alone has ever endangered the perpetuity of the Union. 
But if it was threatened by any other influence, would not 
all men say that the best thing that could be done, if we 
could not or ought not to destroy it, would be at least to 
keep it from growing any larger? Can any man believe 
that the way to save the Union is to extend and increase the 

171 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

only thing that threatens the Union, and to suffer it to grow 
bigger and bigger? 

Whenever this question shall be settled, it must be settled 
on some philosophical basis. No policy that does not rest 
upon philosophical public opinion can be permanently main- 
tained. And hence there are but two policies in regard to 
slavery that can be at all maintained. The first, based on 
the property view that slavery is right, conforms to that 
idea throughout, and demands that we shall do everything 
for it that we ought to do if it were right. We must sweep 
away all opposition, for opposition to the right is wrong; 
we must agree that slavery is right, and we must adopt the 
idea that property has persuaded the owner to believe, that 
slavery is morally right and socially elevating. This gives 
a philosophical basis for a permanent policy of encourage- 
ment. 

The other policy is one that squares with the idea that 
slavery is wrong, and it consists in doing everything that 
we ought to do if it is wrong. Now I don't wish to be mis- 
understood, nor to leave a gap down to be misrepresented, 
even. I don't mean that we ought to attack it where it exists. 
To me it seems that if we were to form a government anew, 
in view of the actual presence of slavery we should find 
it necessary to frame just such a government as our fathers 
did: giving to the slaveholder the entire control where the 
system was established, while we possess the power to re- 
strain it from going outside those limits. From the neces- 
sities of the case we should be compelled to form just such 
a government as our blessed fathers gave us; and surely 
if they have so made it, that adds another reason why we 
should let slavery alone where it exists. 

If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man 
would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but 
if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would 

172 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

be another question. I might hurt the children more than 
the snake, and it might bite them. Much more, if I found 
it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound 
myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children 
under any circumstances, it would become me to let that 
particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But 
if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children 
were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of 
young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no 
man would say there was any question how I ought to 
decide ! 

That is just the case. The new Territories are the newly 
made bed to which our children are to go, and it lies with 
the nation to say whether they shall have snakes mixed up 
with them or not. It does not seem as if there could be 
much hesitation what our policy should be. 

Now I have spoken of a policy based on the idea that sla- 
very is wrong, and a policy based upon the idea that it is 
right. But an effort has been made for a policy that shall 
treat it as neither right nor wrong. It is based upon utter 
indifference. Its leading advocate has said: "I don't care 
whether it be voted up or down." "It is merely a matter 
of dollars and cents." "The Almighty has drawn a line 
across this continent, on one side of which all soil must 
forever be cultivated by slave labor, and on the other by 
free." "When the struggle is between the white man and 
the negro, I am for the white man; when it is between the 
negro and the crocodile, I am for the negro." Its central 
idea is indifference. It holds that it makes no more differ- 
ence to us whether the Territories become free or slave States, 
than whether my neighbor stocks his farm with horned 
cattle or puts it into tobacco. All recognize this policy, the 
plausible sugar-coated name of which is "popular sov- 
ereignty." 

173 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

That saying, "In the struggle between the white man and 
the negro," etc., which, I know, came from the same source 
as this policy — that saying marks another step. There is 
a falsehood wrapped up in that statement. "In the struggle 
between the white man and the negro," assumes that there 
is a struggle, in which either the white man must enslave 
the negro or the negro must enslave the white. There is 
no such struggle. It is merely an ingenious falsehood to 
degrade and brutalize the negro. Let each let the other 
alone, and there is no struggle about it. If it was like two 
wrecked seamen on a narrow plank, where each must push 
the other off or drown himself, I would push the negro off 
• — or a white man either; but it is not: the plank is large 
enough for both. This good earth is plenty broad enough 
for white man and negro both, and there is no need of either 
pushing the other off. 

So that saying, "In the struggle between the negro and 
the crocodile," etc., is made up from the idea that down 
where the crocodile inhabits, a white man can't labor; it 
must be nothing else but crocodile or negro; if the negro 
does not, the crocodile must possess the earth; in that case 
he declares for the negro. The meaning of the whole is 
just this: As a white man is to a negro, so is a negro to a 
crocodile; and as the negro may rightfully treat the croco- 
dile, so may the white man rightfully treat the negro. This 
very dear phrase coined by its author, and so dear that 
he deliberately repeats it in many speeches, has a tendency 
to still further brutalize the negro, and to bring public 
opinion to the point of utter indifference whether men so 
brutalized are enslaved or not. When that time shall come, 
if ever, I think that policy to which I refer may prevail. 
But I hope the good free men of this country will never 
allow it to come, and until then the policy can never be 
maintained. 

174 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to E. Stafford_, Springfield, Illinois, 17 March 

I860.] 

Dear Sir: Reaching home on the 14th instant, I found 
yours of the 1st. Thanking you very sincerely for your kind 
purposes toward me, I am compelled to say the money part 
of the arrangement you propose is, with me, an impossibility. 
I could not raise ten thousand dollars if it would save me 
from the fate of John Brown. Nor have my friends, so 
far as I know, yet reached the point of staking any money 
on my chances of success. I wish I could tell you better 
things, but it is even so. 

[Letter to Samuel Galloway, Chicago, 24 March I860.] 

Ml/ dear Sir: I am here attending a trial in court. Be- 
fore leaving home I received your kind letter of the 15th. 
Of course I am gratified to know I have friends in Ohio 
who are disposed to give me the highest evidence of their 
friendship and confidence. Mr. Parrott, of the legislature, 
had written me to the same effect. If I have any chance, 
it consists mainly in the fact that the whole opposition would 
vote for me, if nominated. (I don't mean to include the 
pro-slavery opposition of the South, of course.) My name 
is new in the field, and I suppose I am not the first choice 
of a very great many. Our policy, then, is to give no of- 
fense to others — leave them in a mood to come to us if they 
shall be compelled to give up their first love. This, too, is 
dealing justly with all, and leaving us in a mood to sup- 
port heartily whoever shall be nominated. I believe I have 
once before told you that I especially wish to do no 
ungenerous thing toward Governor Chase, because he gave 
us his sympathy in 1858 when scarcely any other distin- 

175 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

guished man did. Whatever you may do for me, consistently 
with these suggestions^ will be appreciated and gratefully 
remembered. 



[Reply to the committee sent by the Chicago convention to 
inform Lincoln of his nomination 19 May I860.] 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I ten- 
der to you, and through you to the Republican National 
Convention, and all the people represented in it, my pro- 
foundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you 
now formally announce. Deeply and even painfully sensible 
of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this 
high honor — a responsibility which I could almost wish had 
fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and 
experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were be- 
fore the convention — I shall, by your leave, consider more 
fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated the plat- 
form, and without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay 
respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting 
that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nom- 
ination gratefully accepted. 

And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking 
you, and each of you, by the hand. 



[Letter to Hon. George Ashmun, president Republican na- 
tional convention, Springfield, Illinois, 23 May I860.] 

Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me by the con- 
vention over which you presided, and of which I am for- 
mally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting 
as a commmittee of the convention for that purpose. 

The declaration of principles and sentiments which ac- 

176 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

companies your letter meets my approval; and it shall be 
my care not to violate or disregard it in any part. 

Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence^ and with 
due regard to the views and feelings of all who were rep- 
resented in the convention — to the rights of all the States 
and Territories and people of the nation ; to the inviolability 
of the Constitution ; and the perpetual union, harmony, and 
prosperity of all — I am most happy to cooperate for the 
practical success of the principles declared by the conven- 
tion. 

[Remarks at Springfield, Illinois, 14 August I860.] 

My Fellow-citizens: I appear among you upon this occa- 
sion with no intention of making a speech. 

It has been my purpose since I have been placed in my 
present position to make no speeches. This assemblage hav- 
ing been drawn together at the place of my residence, it 
appeared to be the wish of those constituting this vast as- 
sembly to see me; and it is certainly my wish to see all of 
you. I appear upon the ground here at this time only for 
the purpose of affording myself the best opportunity of 
seeing you, and enabling you to see me. 

I confess with gratitude, be it understood, that I did not 
suppose my appearance among you would create the tumult 
which I now witness. I am profoundly grateful for this 
manifestation of your feelings, I am grateful, because it 
is a tribute such as can be paid to no man as a man; it is 
the evidence that four years from this time you will give 
a like manifestation to the next man who is the representa- 
tive of the truth on the questions that now agitate the public ; 
and it is because you will then fight for this cause as you 
do now, or with even greater ardor than now, though I be 
dead and gone, that I most profoundly and sincerely thank 
you. 

177 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Having said this much^ allow me now to say that it is 
my wish that you will hear this public discussion by others 
of our friends who are present for the purpose of address- 
ing you, and that you will kindly let me be silent. 

[Letter to Miss Grace Bedell, Springfield, Illinois, 
19 October I860.] 

My dear little Miss: Your very agreeable letter of the 
15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have 
no daughter. I have three sons — one seventeen, one nine, 
and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, con- 
stitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never 
worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of 
silly affectation if I were to begin it now.^ 



[Letter to William S. Speer, Springfield, Illinois, 
23 October I860.] 

My dear Sir: Yours of the ISth was duly received. I 
appreciate your motive when you suggest the propriety of 
my writing for the public something disclaiming all inten- 
tion to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States; but 
in my judgment it would do no good. I have already done 
this many, many times; and it is in print, and open to all 
who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I 
have already publicly said would not read or heed a repe- 
tition of it. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead." 



178 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to Hon. Truman Smith, Springfield, Illinois, 
10 November I860.] 

My dear Sir: This is intended as a strictly private letter 
to you, and not as an answer to yours brought me by 

Mr. . It is with the most profound appreciation of your 

motive, and highest respect for your judgment, too, that I 
feel constrained, for the present at least, to make no decla- 
ration for the public. 

First. I could say nothing which I have not already said, 
and which is in print, and open for the inspection of all. 
To press a repetition of this upon those who have listened, 
is useless ; to press it upon those who have refused to listen, 
and still refuse, would be wanting in self-respect, and would 
have an appearance of sycophancy and timidity which 
would excite the contempt of good men and encourage bad 
ones to clamor the more loudly. 

I am not insensible to any commercial or financial depres- 
sion that may exist, but nothing is to be gained by fawning 
around the ''respectable scoundrels" w^ho got it up. Let 
them go to work and repair the mischief of their own mak- 
ing, and then perhaps they will be less greedy to do the 
like again. 

[Remarks at the meeting at Springfield, Illinois, to celebrate 
Lincoln's election 20 November I860.] 

Friends and Fellow-citizens : Please excuse me on this 
occasion from making a speech. I thank you in common 
with all those who have thought fit by their votes to indorse 
the Republican cause. I rejoice with you in the success 
which has thus far attended that cause. Yet in all our re- 
joicings, let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings 

179 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

toward any citizen who by his vote has differed with us. 
Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are 
brothers of a common country, and should dwell together 
in the bonds of fraternal feeling. Let me again beg you 
to accept my thanks^ and to excuse me from further speak- 
ing at this time. 



[Reply to William Kellogg, M.C., who wrote asking advice^ 
11 December I860.] 

Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to 
the extension of slavery. The instant you do they have us 
under again: all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must 
be done over. Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring 
in his "popular sovereignty." Have none of it. The tug 
has to come, and better now than later. You know I think 
the fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution ought to be en- 
forced — to put it in its mildest form^ ought not to be re- 
sisted. 

[Letter to A. H. Stephens, Springfield, Illinois, 22 Decem- 
ber I860.] 

My dear Sir: Your obliging answer to my short note is 
just received, and for which please accept my thanks. I 
fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the 
weight of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South 
really entertain fears that a Republican administration 
would, directly or indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or 
with them about the slaves.^ If they do, I wish to assure 
you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that 
there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in 
no more danger in this respect than it was in the daj^s of 
Washington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the 

180 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

case. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, 
while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That, 
I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial 
difference between us. 



[Letter to Hon. J. T. Hale, Springfield, Illinois, 
11 January 1861.] 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 6th is received. I answer 
it only because I fear you would misconstrue my silence. 
What is our present condition? We have just carried an 
election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we 
are told in advance the government shall be broken up unless 
we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the 
offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us 
or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, 
it is the end of us and of the government. They will re- 
peat the experiment upon us ad libitum. A year will not 
pass till we shall have to take Cuba as a condition upon 
which they will stay in the Union. They now have the 
Constitution under which we have lived over seventy years, 
and acts of Congress of their own framing, with no prospect 
of their being changed; and they can never have a more 
shallow pretext for breaking up the government, or extort- 
ing a compromise, than now. There is in my judgment but 
one compromise which would really settle the slavery ques- 
tion, and that would be a prohibition against acquiring any 
more territory. 

[Address of farewell, Springfield, Illinois, 11 February 

1861.] 

My Friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate 
my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and 

181 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have 
lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young 
to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one 
is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever 
I may return, with a task before me greater than that which 
rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that 
Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With 
that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in him who can 
go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for 
good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To 
his care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you 
will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 

[Reply to address of welcome at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
11 February 1861.] 

Governor Morton and Fellow-citizens of the State of 
Indiana: Most heartily do I thank you for this magnificent 
reception; and while I cannot take to myself any share of 
the compliment thus paid, more than that which pertains 
to a mere instrument — an accidental instrument perhaps I 
should say — of a great cause, I yet must look upon it as 
a magnificent reception, and as such most heartily do I 
thank you for it. You have been pleased to address your- 
self to me chiefly in behalf of this glorious Union in which 
we live, in all of which you have my hearty sympathy, and, 
as far as may be within my power, will have, one and insep- 
arably, my hearty cooperation. While I do not expect, 
upon this occasion, or until I get to Washington, to attempt 
any lengthy speech, I will only say that to the salvation 
of the Union there needs but one single thing, the hearts 
of a people like yours. When the peojjle rise in mass in 
behalf of the Union and the liberties of this country, truly 
may it be said, "The gates of hell cannot prevail against 

182 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

them." In all trying positions in which I shall be placed, 
and doubtless I shall be placed in many such, my reliance 
will be upon you and the people of the United States; and 
I wish you to remember, now and forever, that it is your 
business, and not mine; that if the union of these States 
and the liberties of this people shall be lost, it is but little 
to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal 
to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United 
States, and to their posterity in all coming time. It is your 
business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for 
yourselves, and not for me. I appeal to you again to con- 
stantly bear in mind that not with politicians, not with Pres- 
idents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question: 
Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be 
preserved to the latest generations.'' 



[From an address to the legislature of Ohio at Columbus, 
13 February 1861.] 

Mr. President and Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the 
General Assembly of Ohio: It is true, as has been said 
by the president of the Senate, that very great responsibility 
rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the 
American people have called me. I am deeply sensible of 
that weighty responsibility. I cannot but know what you 
all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason 
why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task 
such as did not rest even upon the Father of his Country; 
and so feeling, I can turn and look for that support without 
which it will be impossible for me to perform that great 
task. I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to 
that God who has never forsaken them. 



183 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[From an address at Cleveland^ Ohio, 15 February 1861.] 

Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present ex- 
isting in our national politics^ and it is as well that I should 
also allude to it here. I think that there is no occasion for 
any excitement. I think the crisis^ as it is called, is alto- 
gether an artificial one. In all parts of the nation there 
are differences of opinion on politics; there are differences 
of opinion even here. You did not all vote for the person 
who now addresses you, although quite enough of you did 
for all practical purposes, to be sure. 

What they do who seek to destroy the Union is altogether 
artificial. What is happening to hurt them? Have they 
not all their rights now as they ever have had? Do not 
they have their fugitive slaves returned now as ever ? Have 
they not the same Constitution that they have lived under 
for seventy-odd years ? Have they not a position as citizens 
of this common country, and have we any power to change 
that position? [Cries of "No!"] What then is the matter 
with them? Why all this excitement? Why all these com- 
plaints ? As I said before, this crisis is altogether artificial. 
It has no foundation in fact. It can't be argued up, and 
it can't be argued down. Let it alone, and it will go down 
of itself. 

There is one feature that causes me great pleasure, and 
that is to learn that this reception is given, not alone by 
those with whom I chance to agree politically, but by all 
parties. I think I am not selfish when I say this is as it 
should be. If Judge Douglas had been chosen President 
of the United States, and had this evening been passing 
through your city, the Republicans should have joined his 
supporters in welcoming him just as his friends have joined 
with mine to-night. If we do not make common cause to 

184 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage^ nobody 
will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage. 

To all of you, then, who have done me the honor to par- 
ticipate in this cordial welcome, I return most sincerely 
my thanks, not for myself, but for Liberty, the Constitution, 
and Union. 

I bid you an affectionate farewell. 

[Address at Utica, New York, 18 February 1861.] 

Ladies and Gentlemen: I have no speech to make to you, 
and no time to speak in. I api3ear before you that I may 
see you, and that you may see me; and I am willing to 
admit, that so far as the ladies are concerned, I have the 
best of the bargain, though I wish it to be understood that 
I do not make the same acknowledgment concerning the 
men. 



[Address to the senate of New Jersey at Trenton, 
21 February 1861.] 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of the State 
of New Jersey : I am very grateful to you for the honorable 
reception of which I have been the object. I cannot but 
remember the place that New Jersey holds in our early his- 
tory. In the Revolutionary struggle few of the States 
among the Old Thirteen had more of the battle-fields of 
the country within their limits than New Jersey. May I 
be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away 
back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able 
to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of 
the younger members have ever seen — Weems' "Life of 
Washington." I remember all the accounts there given of 
the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties of the coun- 

185 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

try, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so 
deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The 
crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the 
great hardships endured at that time, all iixed themselves 
on my memory more than any single Revolutionary event; 
and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these 
early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect 
thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have 
been something more than common that these men struggled 
for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing — that 
something even more than national independence; that 
something that held out a great promise to all the 
people of the world to all time to come — I am ex- 
ceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and 
the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in ac- 
cordance with the original idea for which that struggle 
was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be 
a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of 
this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object 
of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I 
understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this 
body is composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the 
exercise of their best judgment in the choice of a chief 
magistrate, did not think I was the man. I understand, 
nevertheless, that they come forward here to greet me as 
the constitutionally elected President of the United States 
— as citizens of the United States to meet the man who, 
for the time being, is the representative of the majesty of 
the nation — united by the single purpose to perpetuate the 
Constitution, the Union, and the liberties of the people. As 
such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could 
do did I believe it were tendered to me as an individual. 



186 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Address in Independence hall^ Philadelphia, 22 February 

1861.] 

Mr. Cuyler: I am filled with deep emotion at finding 
myself standing in this plaee^ where were collected together 
the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from 
which sprang the institutions under which we live. You 
have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task 
of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in 
return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have 
been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from 
the sentiments which originated in and were given to the 
world from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, 
that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the 
Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over 
the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled 
here and framed and adopted that Declaration. I have 
pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers 
and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. 
I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea 
it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was 
not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the 
motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of In- 
dependence which gave liberty not alone to the people of 
this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. 
It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights 
would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that 
all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment em- 
bodied in the Declaration of Independence, Now, my 
friends, can this country be saved on that basis .^ If it can, 
I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the 
world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon 
that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country 

187 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was 
about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than 
surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of 
affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no 
necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course ; and I 
may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed unless 
it is forced upon the government. The government will not 
use force, unless force is used against it. 

My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did 
not expect to be called on to say a word when I came here. 
I supposed I was merely to do something toward raising a 
flag. I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. 
[Cries of "No, no."] But I have said nothing but what 
I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty 
God, to die by. 



[First inaugural address, Washington, 4 March 1861.] 

Fellow-citizens of the United States: In compliance with 
a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before 
you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the 
oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to 
be taken by the President "before he enters on the execu- 
tion of his office." 

I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss 
those matters of administration about which there is no 
special anxiety or excitement. 

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 
Southern States that by the accession of a Republican ad- 
ministration their property and their peace and personal 
security are to be endangered. There has never been any 
reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and 
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the 

188 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do 
but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that 
''I have no purpose^ directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I 
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no in- 
clination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me 
did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many 
similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And, 
more than this, they placed in the platform for my accept- 
ance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and 
emphatic resolution which I now read: 

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights 
of the States, and especially the right of each State to order 
and control its own domestic institutions according to its 
own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
power on which the perfection and endurance of our polit- 
ical fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless inva- 
sion by armed force of the soil of any State or Terri- 
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among the grayest 
of crimes. 

I now reiterate these sentiments ; and, in doing so, I only 
press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence 
of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, 
and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered 
by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all 
the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and 
the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the 
States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as 
cheerfully to one section as to another. 

There is much controversy about the delivering up of 
fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is 
as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its 
provisions : 

189 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of 
any law or regulation therein be discharged from such ser- 
vice or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor may be due. 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended 
by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call 
fugitive slaves ; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. 
All members of Congress swear their support to the whole 
Constitution — to this provision as much as to any other. 
To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within 
the terms of this clause "shall be delivered up," their oaths 
are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good 
temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame 
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unan- 
imous oath? 

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause 
should be enforced by national or by State authority; but 
surely that difference is not a very material one. If the 
slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence 
to him or to others by which authority it is done. And 
should any one in any case be content that his oath shall 
go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how 
it shall be kept? 

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all tlie 
safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane juris- 
prudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in 
any case, surrendered as a slave ? And might it not be well 
at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of 
that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the 
citizen of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States"? 

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, 

190 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by 
any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now 
to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be en- 
forced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both 
in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by 
all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any 
of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be 
unconstitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a 
President under our National Constitution. During that 
period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens 
have, in succession, administered the executive branch of 
the government. They have conducted it through many 
perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this 
scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for 
the brief constitutional term of four years under great and 
peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, here- 
tofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. 

I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the 
Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Per- 
petuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law 
of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no 
government proper ever had a provision in its organic law 
for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express 
provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever — it being impossible to destroy it except by 
some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

Again, if the United States be not a government proper, 
but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, 
can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all 
the parties who made it? One party to a contract may 
violate it — break it, so to speak; but does it not require all 
to lawfully rescind it? 

Descending from these general principles, we find the 

191 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is per- 
petual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The 
Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, 
in fact_, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was 
matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence 
in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the 
then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that 
it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 
1778. And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for 
ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to form 
a more perfect Union." 

But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part 
only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less 
perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital 
element of perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no State upon its own 
mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves 
and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts 
of violence, within any State or States, against the authority 
of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, 
according to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and 
the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my 
ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly 
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully 
executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only 
a simjDle duty on my part; and I shall perform it so far 
as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American 
people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some author- 
itative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not 
be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose 
of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and main- 
tain itself. 

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence ; 

192 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and there shall be none^ unless it be forced upon the national 
authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, 
occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to 
the government_, and to collect the duties and imposts; but 
beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will 
be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people 
anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any 
interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent 
competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, 
there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among 
the people for that obj ect. While the strict legal right may 
exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these 
offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so 
nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better to forego 
for the time the uses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished 
in all parts of the Union. So far as ]>ossible, the people 
everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security whiclj 
is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The 
course here indicated will be followed unless current events 
and experience shall show a modification or change to be 
proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion 
will be exercised according to circumstances actually exist- 
ing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of 
the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sym- 
pathies and affections. 

That there are persons in one section or another who seek 
to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pre- 
text to do it^ I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be 
such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, 
who really love the Union may I not speak ? 

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- 
tion of our national f abric^, with all its benefits, its memories, 
and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while 
there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly 
from have no real existence? Will you^ while the certain 
ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly 
from — will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ? 

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional 
rights can be maintained. Is it true^ then, that any right, 
plainly written in the constitution, has been denied? I 
think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that 
no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, 
if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written 
provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by 
the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a 
minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, 
in a moral point of view, justify revolution — certainly would 
if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. 
All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so 
plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guar- 
anties and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controver- 
sies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can 
ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to 
every question which may occur in practical administration. 
No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable 
length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. 
Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or 
by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly 
say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? 
The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress 
protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does 
not expressly say. 

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional 
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and 
minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority 
must, or the government must cease. There is no other 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

alternative; for continuing the government is acquiescence 
on one side or the other. 

If a minority in such case will secede rather than 
acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide 
and ruin them ; for a minority of their own will secede from 
them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such 
minority. For instance_, why may not any portion of a new 
confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, 
precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to 
secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are 
now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. 

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the 
States to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only, 
and prevent renewed secession ? 

Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of 
anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional 
checks and limitations, and always changing easily with de- 
liberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the 
only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it 
does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Una- 
nimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent 
arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the 
majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is 
all that is left. 

I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that con- 
stitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court ; 
nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any 
case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that 
suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and 
consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments 
of the government. And while it is obviously possible that 
such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the 
evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, 
with the chance that it may be overruled and never become 

195 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could 
the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the can- 
did citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, 
upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be 
irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the 
instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties 
in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their 
own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their 
government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor 
is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. 
It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases 
properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs 
if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. 

One section of our country believes slavery is right, and 
ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, 
and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial 
dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and 
the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are 
each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in 
a community where the moral sense of the people imper- 
fectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people 
abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few 
break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured ; 
and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of 
the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now im- 
perfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without 
restriction, in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only 
partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by 
the other. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot re- 
move our respective sections from each other, nor build an 
impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may 
be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the 
reach of each other; but the different parts of our country 

196 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face, and 
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between 
them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more 
advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than 
before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can 
make laws.^ Can treaties be more faithfully enforced be- 
tween aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you 
go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much 
loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fight- 
ing, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse 
are again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people 
who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the 
existing government, they can exercise their constitutional 
right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dis- 
member or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact 
that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of 
having the National Constitution amended. While I make 
no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the 
rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to 
be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instru- 
ment itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, 
favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded 
the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to 
me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows 
amendments to originate with the people themselves, in- 
stead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions 
originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, 
and which might not be precisely such as they would wish 
to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I 
have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the 
Federal Government shall never interfere with the domes- 
tic institutions of the States, including that of persons held 

197 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, 
I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amend- 
ments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to 
now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to 
its being made express and irrevocable. 

The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the 
people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms 
for the separation of the States. The people themselves 
can do this also if they choose; but the executive, as such, 
has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the 
present government, as it came to his hands, and to transmit 
it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. 

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ulti- 
mate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal 
hope in the world? In our present differences is either 
party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty 
Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on 
your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth 
and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this 
great tribunal of the American people. 

By the frame of the government under which we live, 
this same people have wisely given their public servants but 
little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, 
provided for the return of that little to their own hands 
at very short intervals. While the people retain their 
virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of 
wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the govern- 
ment in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon 
this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking 
time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot 
haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that 
obj ect will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good obj ect 
can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatis- 

198 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

fied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired^ and, on the 
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; 
while the new administration will have no immediate power, 
if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you 
who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there 
still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelli- 
gence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on him 
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still com- 
petent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not 
in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The govern- 
ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without 
being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- 
tered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have 
the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, 
it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords 
of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot 
grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when 
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature. 



[Reply to Secretary Seward's memorandum, 1 April 1861.] 

My dear Sir: Since parting with you I have been consid- 
ering your paper dated this day, and entitled "Some 
Thoughts for the President's Consideration." The first 
proposition in it is, "First, We are at the end of a month's 
administration, and yet without a policy either domestic or 
foreign." 

At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, I said: 
"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 

199 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

possess the property and places belonging to the govern- 
ment^ and to collect the duties and imposts." This had your 
distinct approval at the time; and^ taken in connection with 
the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him 
to employ every means in his power to strengthen and hold 
the forts, comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, 
with the single exception that it does not propose to abandon 
Fort Sumter. 

Again, I do not perceive how the reinforcement of Fort 
Sumter would be done on a slavery or a party issue, while 
that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national and 
patriotic one. 

The news received yesterday in regard to St. Domingo 
certainly brings a new item within the range of our foreign 
policy ; but up to that time we have been preparing circulars 
and instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect 
harmony, without even a suggestion that we had no foreign 
policy. 

Upon your closing propositions — that "whatever policy 
we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. 

"For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pur- 
sue and direct it incessantly. 

"Either the President must do it himself ^ and be all the 
while active in it, or 

"Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once 
adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide" 
— I remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When 
a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is 
no danger of its being changed without good reason, or 
continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon 
points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am en- 
titled to have, the advice of all the cabinet. 



200 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[From Lincoln's first message to congress convened in 
special session 4 July 1861.] 

It is thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of Fort 
Sumter was in no sense a matter of self-defense on the part 
of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the 
fort could by no possibility commit aggression upon them. 
They knew — they were expressly notified — that the giving 
of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the garrison 
was all which would on that occasion be attempted, unless 
themselves, by resisting so much, should provoke more. 
They knew that this government desired to keep the garri- 
son in the fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain 
visible possession, and thus to preserve the Union from 
actual and immediate dissolution — trusting, as hereinbefore 
stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box for final ad- 
justment; and they assailed and reduced the fort for pre- 
cisely the reverse object — to drive out the visible authority 
of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dis- 
solution. That this was their object the executive well un- 
derstood ; and having said to them in the inaugural address, 
"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors," he took pains not only to keep this declaration 
good, but also to keep the case so free from the power of 
ingenious sophistry that the world should not be able to mis- 
understand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its sur- 
rounding circumstances, that point was reached. Then and 
thereby the assailants of the government began the conflict 
of arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return 
their fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that harbor 
years before for their own protection, and still ready to 
give that protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, 
discarding all else, they have forced upon the country the 
distinct issue, "immediate dissolution or blood." 

201 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these 
United States. It presents to the whole family of man the 
question whether a constitutional republic or democracy — a 
government of the people by the same people — can or can- 
not maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic 
foes. It presents the question whether discontented indi- 
viduals, too few in numbers to control administration accord- 
ing to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pre- 
tenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or 
arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, 
and thus practically put an end to free government upon 
the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics, 
this inherent and fatal weakness?" "Must a government, 
of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, 
or too weak to maintain its own existence?" 

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out 
the war power of the government; and so to resist force 
employed for its destruction, by force for its preservation. 

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free in- 
stitutions we enj oy have developed the powers and improved 
the condition of our whole people beyond any example in 
the world. Of this we now have a striking and an impres- 
sive illustration. So large an army as the government has 
^now on foot was never before known, without a soldier in 
it but who has taken his place there of his own free choice. 
But more than this, there are many single regiments whose 
members, one and another, possess full practical knowledge 
of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, 
whether useful or elegant, is known in the world ; and there 
is scarcely one from which there could not be selected a 
President, a cabinet, a congress, and perhaps a court, abun- 
dantly competent to administer the government itself. Nor 
do I say this is not true also in the army of our late friends, 
now adversaries in this contest; but if it is, so much better 

202 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the reason why the government which has conferred such 
benefits on both them and us should not be broken up. 
Whoever in any section proposes to abandon such a gov- 
ernment would do well to consider in deference to what 
principle it is that he does it — what better he is likely to 
get in its stead — whether the substitute will give, or be 
intended to give_, so much of good to the people? There 
are some foreshado wings on this subject. Our adversa- 
ries have adopted some declarations of independence in 
which, unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson, they 
omit the words "all men are created equal." Why.f* They 
have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the 
preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by 
Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute, 
"We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent 
States." Why.f* Why this deliberate pressing out of view 
the rights of men and the authority of the people? 

This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of 
the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that 
form and substance of government whose leading object 
is to elevate the condition of men — to lift artificial weights 
from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit 
for all; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance 
in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary de- 
partures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the 
government for whose existence we contend. 

I am most happy to believe that the plain people un- 
derstand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that 
while in this, the government's hour of trial, large num- 
bers of those in the army and navy who have been favored 
with the offices have resigned and proved false to the hand 
which had pampered them, not one common soldier or 
common sailor is known to have deserted his flag. 

Great honor is due to those officers who remained true, 

203 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

despite the example of their treacherous associates; but 
the greatest honor^ and most important fact of all^ is the 
unanimous firmness of the common soldiers and common 
sailors. To the last man^ so far as known, they have suc- 
cessfully resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose 
commands, but an hour before, they obeyed as absolute 
law. This is the patriotic instinct of the plain people. 
They understand, without an argument, that the destroy- 
ing of the government which was made by Washington 
means no good to them. 

Our popular government has often been called an ex- 
periment. Two points in it our people have already set- 
tled — the successful establishing and the successful ad- 
ministering of it. One still remains — its successful 
maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to over- 
throw it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world 
that those who can fairly carry an election can also sup- 
press a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peace- 
ful successors of bullets ; and that when ballots have fairly 
and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful 
appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful 
appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elec- 
tions. Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men 
that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they 
take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the be- 
ginners of a war. 

Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid 
men as to what is to be the course of the government 
toward the Southern States after the rebellion shall have 
been suppressed, the executive deems it proper to say it 
will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Con- 
stitution and the laws; and that he probably will have 
no different understanding of the powers and duties of 
the Federal Government relatively to the rights of the 

204. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

States and the people, under the Constitution, than that 
expressed in the inaugural address. 

He desires to preserve the government, that it may be 
administered for all as it was administered by the men 
who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere have the right 
to claim this of their government, and the government has 
no right to withhold or neglect it. It is not perceived 
that in giving it there is any coercion, any conquest, or 
any subjugation, in any just sense of those terms. 

The Constitution provides, and all the States have ac- 
cepted the provision, that "the United States shall guar- 
antee to every State in this Union a republican form of 
government." But if a State may lawfully go out of the 
Union, having done so, it may also discard the republican 
form of government; so that to prevent its going out is 
an indispensable means to the end of maintaining the 
guarantee mentioned; and when an end is lawful and ob- 
ligatory, the indispensable means to it are also lawful and 

obligatory. .. r a 

It was with the deepest regret that the executive tound 
the duty of employing the war power in defense of the 
government, forced upon him. He could but perform this 
duty or surrender the existence of the government. No 
compromise by public servants could, in this case, be a 
cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that 
no popular government can long survive a marked prece- 
dent that those who carry an election can only save the 
government from immediate destruction by giving up the 
main point upon which the people gave the election. The 
people themselves, and not their servants, can safely re- 
verse their own deliberate decisions. 

As a private citizen the executive could not have con- 
sented that these institutions shall perish; much less could 
he, in betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as the free 

205 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

people have confided to him. He felt that he had no 
moral right to shrink^ nor even to count the chances of 
his own life in what might follow. In full view of his 
great responsibility he has, so far, done what he has 
deemed his duty. You will now, according to your own 
judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your 
views and your actions may so accord with his, as to 
assure all faithful citizens who have been disturbed in 
their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to them, 
under the Constitution and the laws. 

And having thus chosen our course, without guile and 
with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go 
forward without fear and with manly hearts. 

[Proclamation of a national fast-day, 12 August 1861.] 

Whereas a joint committee of both houses of Congress 
has waited on the President of the United States and re- 
quested him to "recommend a day of public prayer, hu- 
miliation, and fasting, to be observed by the people of 
the United States with religious solemnities, and the offer- 
ing of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the 
safety and welfare of these States, his blessings on their 
arms, and a speedy restoration of peace": 

And whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all 
times, to acknowledge and revere the supreme government 
of God; to bow in humble submission to his chastisements; 
to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions, in 
the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the begin- 
ning of wisdom; and to pray with all fervency and con- 
trition for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a 
blessing upon their present and prospective action: 

And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by 
the blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is 

206 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

now afflicted with faction and civil war^ it is peculiarly 
fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible 
visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults 
and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble our- 
selves before him and to pray for his mercy — to pray that 
we may be spared further punishment, though most justly 
deserved ; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual 
for the reestablishment of law, order, and peace through- 
out the wide extent of our country; and that the inesti- 
mable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under 
his guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings 
of our fathers, may be restored in all its original ex- 
cellence : 

Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next 
as a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the 
people of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to 
all the people, and especially to all ministers and teachers 
of religion, of all denominations, and to all heads of fam- 
ilies, to observe and keep that day, according to their sev- 
eral creeds and modes of worship, in all humility and 
with all religious solemnity, to the end that the united 
prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace, 
and bring down plentiful blessings upon our country. 

[Letter to General Fremont, Washington, D. C, 2 Sep- 
tember 1861.] 

My dear Sir: Two points in your proclamation of 
August SO give me some anxiety: 

First. Should you shoot a man, according to the procla- 
mation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our 
best men in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for 
man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you al- 

207 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

low no man to be shot under the proclamation without first 
having my approbation or consent. 

Second. I think there is great danger that the closing 
paragraph^ in relation to the confiscation of property and 
the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our 
Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps 
ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, 
therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, 
modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and 
fourth sections of the act of Congress entitled, "An act 
to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," 
approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I here- 
with send you. 

This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of 
censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it 
may certainly and speedily reach you. 



[Letter to General Hunter, Washington, 9 September 

1861.] 

My dear Sir: General Fremont needs assistance which 
it is difficult to give him. He is losing the confidence of 
men near him, whose support any man in his position must 
have to be successful. His cardinal mistake is that he 
isolates himself and allows nobody to see him, and by 
which he does not know what is going on in the very 
matter he is dealing with. He needs to have by his side 
a man of large experience. Will you not, for me, take 
that place.'* Your rank is one grade too high to be or- 
dered to it, but will you not serve the country and oblige 
me by taking it voluntarily? 



208 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to Mrs. Fremont, Washington, 12 September 

1861.] 

My dear Madam: Your two notes of to-day are before 
me. I answered the letter you bore me from General 
Fremont on yesterday, and not hearing from you during 
the day, I sent the answer to him by mail. It is not ex- 
actly correct, as you say you were told by the elder Mr. 
Blair, to say that I sent Postmaster-General Blair to St. 
Louis to examine into that department and report. Post- 
master-General Blair did go, with my approbation, to see 
and converse with General Fremont as a friend. I do 
not feel authorized to furnish you with copies of letters 
in my possession without the consent of the writers. No 
impression has been made on my mind against the honor 
or integrity of General Fremont, and I now enter my 
protest against being understood as acting in any hostility 
toward him. 

[Letter to O. H. Browning, Washington, 22 September 

1861.] 

Mp dear Sir: Yours of the 17th is just received; and 
coming from you, I confess it astonishes me. That you 
should object to my adhering to a law which you had 
assisted in making and presenting to me less than a month 
before is odd enough. But this is a very small part. Gen- 
eral Fremont's proclamation as to confiscation of prop- 
erty and the liberation of slaves is purely political and not 
within the range of military law or necessity. If a com- 
manding general finds a necessity to seize the farm of a 
private owner for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortifi- 
cation, he has the right to do so, and to so hold it as long 

209 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

as the necessity lasts; and this is within military law, be- 
cause within military necessity. But to say the farm shall 
no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and 
this as well when the farm is not needed for military pur- 
poses as when it is, is purely political, without the savor 
of military law about it. And the same is true of slaves. 
If the general needs them, he can seize them and use them; 
but when the need is past, it is not for him to fix their per- 
manent future condition. That must be settled according 
to laws made by law-makers, and not by military procla- 
mations. The proclamation in the point in question is 
simply "dictatorship." It assumes that the general may 
do anything he pleases — confiscate the lands and free the 
slaves of loyal people, as well as of disloyal ones. And 
going the whole figure, I have no doubt, would be more 
popular with some thoughtless people than that which has 
been done ! But I cannot assume this reckless position, 
nor allow others to assume it on my responsibility. 

You speak of it as being the only means of saving the 
government. On the contrary, it is itself the surrender 
of the government. Can it be pretended that it is any 
longer the Government of the United States — any govern- 
ment of constitution and laws — wherein a general or a 
president may make permanent rules of property by 
proclamation? I do not say Congress might not with 
propriety pass a law on the point, just such as General 
Fremont proclaimed. I do not say I might not, as a mem- 
ber of Congress, vote for it. What I object to is, that 
I, as President, shall expressly or impliedly seize and ex- 
ercise the permanent legislative functions of the govern- 
ment. 

So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt 
the thing was popular in some quarters, and would have 
been more so if it had been a general declaration of eman- 

210 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cipation. The Kentucky legislature would not budge till 
that proclamation was modified; and General Anderson 
telegraphed me that on the news of General Fremont hav- 
ing actually issued deeds of manumission^ a whole com- 
pany of our volunteers threw down their arms and dis- 
banded. I was so assured as to think it probable that the 
very arms we had furnished Kentucky would be turned 
against us. I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same 
as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold 
Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against 
us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We 
would as well consent to separation at once, including the 
surrender of this capital. On the contrary, if you will 
give up your restlessness for new positions, and back me 
manfully on the grounds upon which you and other kind 
friends gave me the election and have approved in my 
public documents, we shall go through triumphantly. You 
must not understand I took my course on the proclamation 
because of Kentucky. I took the same ground in a private 
letter to General Fremont before I heard from Ken- 
tucky. 

You think I am inconsistent because I did not also for- 
bid General Fremont to shoot men under the proclama- 
tion. I understand that part to be within military law, 
but I also think, and so privately wrote General Fremont, 
that it is impolitic in this, that our adversaries have the 
power, and will certainly exercise it, to shoot as many of 
our men as we shoot of theirs. I did not say this in the 
public letter, because it is a subject I prefer not to discuss 
in the hearing of our enemies. 

There has been no thought of removing General Fre- 
mont on any ground connected with his proclamation, and 
if there has been any wish for his removal on any ground, 
our mutual friend Sam. Glover can probably tell you what 

211 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

it was. I hope no real necessity for it exists on any 
ground. 



[Letter to General McClernand^ Washington, 10 Novem- 
ber 1861.] 

My dear Sir: This is not an official, but a social letter. 
You have had a battle, and without being able to judge 
as to the precise measure of its value, I think it is safe 
to say that you and all with you have done honor to your- 
selves and the flag, and service to the country. Most 
gratefully do I thank you and them. In my present po- 
sition I must care for the whole nation; but I hope it will 
be no injustice to any other State for me to indulge a 
little home pride that Illinois does not disappoint us. I 
have just closed a long interview with Mr. Washburne, in 
which he has detailed the many difficulties you and those 
with you labor under. Be assured we do not forget or 
neglect you. Much, very much, goes undone; but it is 
because we have not the power to do it faster than we do. 
Some of your forces are without arms, but the same is 
true here and at every other place where we have consid- 
erable bodies of troops. The plain matter of fact is, our 
good people have rushed to the rescue of the government 
faster than the government can find arms to put into their 
hands. It would be agreeable to each division of the army 
to know its own precise destination; but the government 
cannot immediately, nor inflexibly at any time, determine 
as to all; nor, if determined, can it tell its friends without 
at the same time telling its enemies. We know you do all 
as wisely and well as you can; and you will not be de- 
ceived if you conclude the same is true of us, Please give 
my respects and thanks to all. 



212 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



3 Decem- 



[From Lincoln's annual message to congress, 

ber 1861.] 

It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, 
if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular 
government — the rights of the people. Conclusive evi- 
dence of this is found in the most grave and maturely con- 
sidered public documents as well as in the general tone 
of the insurgents. In those documents we find the abridg- 
ment of the existing right of suffrage and the denial to 
the people of all right to participate in the selection of 
public officers except the legislative, boldly advocated, with 
labored arguments to prove that large control of the people 
in government is the source of all political evil. Monarchy 
itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the 
power of the people. 

In my present position I could scarcely be justified were 
I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach 
of returning despotism. 

It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument 
should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there 
is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most 
others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to 
place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, 
in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor 
is available only in connection with capital; that nobody 
labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by 
the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next 
considered whether it is best that capital shall hire labor- 
ers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or 
buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. 
Having proceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that 
all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. 

21S 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired 
laborer is fixed in that condition for life. 

Now, there is no such relation between capital and 
labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man 
being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. 
Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from 
them are groundless. 

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital 
is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if 
labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capi- 
tal, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital 
has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any 
other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably 
always will be, a relation between labor and capital pro- 
ducing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the 
whole labor of the community exists within that relation. 
A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor them- 
selves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to 
labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class 
— neither work for others nor have others working for 
them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the 
whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor mas- 
ters; while in the Northern a large majority are neither 
hirers nor hired. Men with their families — wives, sons, 
and daughters — work for themselves, on their farms, in 
their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product 
to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the 
one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It 
is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons 
mingle their own labor with capital — that is, they labor 
with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor 
for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. 
No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this 
mixed class. 

214. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Again^ as has already been said^ there is not, of neces- 
sity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed 
to that condition for life. Many independent men every- 
where in these States, a few years back in their lives, were 
hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the 
world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which 
to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own 
account another while, and at length hires another new be- 
ginner to help him. This is the just and generous and 
prosperous system which opens the way to all — gives hope 
to all, and consequent energy and progress and improve- 
ment of condition to all. No men living are more worthy 
to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty — none 
less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not 
honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a po- 
litical power which they already possess, and which, if sur- 
rendered, will surely be used to close the door of advance- 
ment against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and 
burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost. 

From the first taking of our national census to the last 
are seventy years; and we find our population at the end 
of the period eight times as great as it was at the begin- 
ning. The increase of those other things which men deem 
desirable has been even greater. We thus have, at one 
view, what the popular principle, applied to government, 
through the machinery of the States and the Union, has 
produced in a given time; and also what, if firmly main- 
tained, it promises for the future. There are already 
among us those who, if the Union be preserved, will live to 
see it contain 250,000,000. The struggle of to-day is not 
altogether for to-day — it is for a vast future also. With 
a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let 
us proceed in the great task which events have devolved 
upon us. 

215 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to General G. B. McClellan, Washington, 3 Feb- 
ruary 1862.] 

My dear Sir : You and I have distinct and different plans 
for a movement of the Army of the Potomac — yours to be 
down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, 
and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the 
York River; mine to move directly to a point on the rail- 
road southwest of Manassas. 

If you will give me satisfactory answers to the follow- 
ing questions, I shall gladly jdeld my plan to yours. 

First. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger ex- 
penditure of time and money than mine.^ 

Second. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan 
than mine? 

Third. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan 
than mine,'' 

Fourth. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this, 
that it would break no great line of the enemy's com- 
munications, while mine would.'' 

Fifth. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more 
difficult by your plan than mine.'' 

[Message to congress, 6 March 1862.] 

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representor 
tives : I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by 
your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as fol- 
lows : 

Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate 
with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of 
slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by 

216 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

such State^ in its discretion, to compensate for the incon- 
veniences_, public and private, produced by such change of 
system. 

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not 
meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the 
end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of 
importance that the States and people immediately inter- 
ested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact^, so 
that they may begin to consider whether to accept or re- 
ject it. The Federal Government would find its highest 
interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient 
means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing 
insurrection entertain the hope that this government will 
ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of 
some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave 
States north of such part will then say, " The Union for 
which we have strugggled being already gone, we now 
choose to go with the Southern section." To deprive them 
of this hope substantially ends the rebellion; and the initi- 
ation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to 
all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the 
States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate 
emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to 
all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it 
certain to the more Southern that in no event will the 
former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. 
I say " initiation " because, in my judgment, gradual and 
not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere 
financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with 
the census tables and treasury reports before him, can read- 
ily see for himself how very soon the current expendi- 
tures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the 
slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part 

217 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

of the General Government sets up no claim of a right by 
Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State 
limits^ referring^ as it does_, the absolute control of the 
subject in each case to the State and its people immedi- 
ately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly 
free choice with them. 

In the annual message, last December, I thought fit to 
say, " The Union must be preserved, and hence all indis- 
pensable means must be employed." I said this not hastily, 
but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be, 
an indispensable means to this end. A practical reac- 
knowledgment of the national authority would render the 
war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, how- 
ever, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and 
it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may at- 
tend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may 
seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great effi- 
ciency, toward ending the struggle, must and will come. 

The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope 
it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary 
consideration tendered would not be of more value to the 
States and private persons concerned than are the institu- 
tion and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs } 

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolu- 
tion would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a prac- 
tical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would 
soon lead to important practical results. In full view of 
my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I 
earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to 
the subject. 



218 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[Letter to Henry J. Raymond, editor New York Times, 
Washington, 9 March 1862.] 

My dear Sir: I am grateful to the New York journals, 
and not less so to the " Times " than to others, for their 
kind notices of the late special message to Congress. 

Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, 
though well intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. 
I do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the 
facts that less than one half day's cost of this war would 
pay for all the slaves in Delaware at $400 per head — that 
eighty-seven days' cost of this war would pay for all in 
Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and 
Missouri at the same price? Were those States to take the 
step, do you doubt that it would shorten the war more than 
eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense.'* 

Please look at these things and consider whether there 
should not be another article in the " Times." 



[Letter to Hon. James A. McDougall, Washington, 
14 March 1862.] 

My dear Sir; As to the expensiveness of the plan of grad- 
ual emancipation with compensation, proposed in the late 
message, please allow me one or two brief suggestions. 

Less than one half day's cost of this war would pay for 
all the slaves in Delaware at four hundred dollars per 
head. 

Thus, all the slaves in Delaware by 

the census of I860, are 1,798 

400 

Cost of the slaves $719,200 

One day's cost of the war 2,000,000 

219 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of this war 
would, at the same price, pay for all in Delaware, Mary- 
land, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

Thus, slaves in Delaware 1,798 

Maryland 87^188 

District of Colum- 
bia 3,181 

" " Kentucky 225,490 

" " Missouri 114,965 



432,622 
400 



Cost of slaves $173,048,800 

Eighty-seven days' cost of the war . . 174,000,000 

Do you doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the 
part of those States and this District would shorten the 
war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual 
saving of expense? 

A word as to the time and manner of incurring the ex- 
pense. Suppose, for instance, a State devises and adopts 
a system by which the institution absolutely ceases there- 
in by a named day — say January 1, 1882. Then let the 
sum to be paid to such a State by the United States be as- 
certained by taking from the census of I860 the number 
of slaves within the State, and multiplying that number 
by four hundred — ^the United States to pay such sums to 
the State in twenty equal annual instalments, in six per 
cent, bonds of the United States. 

The sum thus given, as to time and manner, I think, 
would not be half as onerous as would be an equal sum 
raised now for the indefinite prosecution of the war ; but of 

220 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

this you can judge as well as I. I inclose a census table 
for your convenience. 



[Letter to General McClellan, Washington, 9 April 1862.] 

My dear Sir: Your despatches, complaining that you are 
not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain 
me very much. 

Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you 
left here, and you knew the pressure under which I did it, 
and, as I thought, acquiesced in it — certainly not without 
reluctance. 

After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000 unor- 
ganized men, without a single field-battery, were all you 
designed to be left for the defense of Washington and 
Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go to 
General Hooker's old position; General Banks's corps, 
once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and 
tied up on the line of Winchester and Strasburg, and could 
not leave it without again exposing the upper Potomac 
and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented 
(or would present, when McDowell and Sumner should 
be gone) a great temptation to the enemy to turn back 
from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. ]\Iy ex- 
plicit order that Washington should, by the judgment of 
all the commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had 
been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to 
detain McDowell. 

I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrange- 
ment to leave Banks at Manassas Junction; but when that 
arrangement was broken up and nothing was substituted 
for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to 
substitute something for it myself. 

And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should 

221 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

permit the line from Richmond via Manassas Junction to 
this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could 
be presented by less than 20_,000 unorganized troops? 
This is a question which the country will not allow me 
to evade. 

There is a curious mystery about the number of the 
troops now with you. When I telegraphed you on the 
6th, saying you had over 100,000 with you, I had just ob- 
tained from the Secretary of War a statement, taken as he 
said from your own returns, making 108,000 then with 
you and en route to you. You now say you will have but 
85,000 when all en route to you shall have reached you. 
How can this discrepancy of 23,000 be accounted for? 

As to General Wool's command, I understand it is 
doing for you precisely what a like number of your own 
would have to do if that command was away. I suppose 
the whole force which has gone forward to you is with 
you by this time; and if so, I think it is the precise time 
for you to strike a blow. By delay the enemy will rela- 
tively gain upon you — that is, he will gain faster by forti- 
fications and reinforcements than you can by reinforce- 
ments alone. 

And once more let me tell you it is indispensable to you 
that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You 
will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that 
going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting 
at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmount- 
ing a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and 
the same or equal intrenchments at either place. The 
country will not fail to note — is noting now — that the 
present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but 
the story of Manassas repeated. 

I beg to assure you that I have never written you or 
spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor 

222 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as in my most 
anxious judgment I consistently can; but you must act. 



[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 1 May 

1862.] 

Your call for Parrott guns from Washington alarms me, 
chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastination. Is 
anything to be done.'' 

[Letter to General McClellan, Washington, 9 May 1862.] 

My dear Sir: I have just assisted the Secretary of War 
in framing part of a despatch to you relating to army 
corps, which despatch of course will have reached you 
long before this will. 

I wish to say a few words to you privately on this sub- 
ject. I ordered the army corps organization not only on 
the unanimous opinion of the twelve generals whom you 
had selected and assigned as generals of division, but also 
on the unanimous opinion of every military man I could get 
an opinion from (and every modern military book), your- 
self only excepted. Of course I did not on my own judg- 
ment pretend to understand the subject. I now think it 
indispensable for you to know how your struggle against 
it is received in quarters which we cannot entirely disre- 
gard. It is looked upon as merely an effort to pamper 
one or two pets and to persecute and degrade their sup- 
posed rivals. I have had no word from Sumner, Heintzel- 
man, or Keyes. The commanders of these corps are of 
course the three highest officers with you, but I am con- 
stantly told that you have no consultation or communication 
with them; that you consult and communicate with nobody 
but General Fitz-John Porter and perhaps General Frank- 

223 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

lin. I do not say these complaints are true or just^ but at 
all events it is proper you should know of their existence. 
Do the commanders of corps disobey your orders in any- 
thing ? 

When you relieved General Hamilton of his command 
the other day, you thereby lost the confidence of at least 
one of your best friends in the Senate. And here let me 
say, not as applicable to you personally, that senators and 
representatives speak of me in their places as they please 
without question^ and that officers of the army must cease 
addressing insulting letters to them for taking no greater 
liberty with them. 

But to return. Are you strong enough — are you strong 
enough, even with my help — to set your foot upon the 
necks of Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes all at once? 
This is a practical and very serious question for you. 

The success of your army and the cause of the country 
are the same^ and of course I only desire the good of the 
cause. 



[Proclamation revoking General Hunter's order of mili- 
tary emancipation, 19 May 1862.] 

Whereas there appears in the public prints what purports 
to be a proclamation of Major-General Hunter, in the 
words and figures following, to wit: 

The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Caro- 
lina, comprising the military department of the South, 
having deliberately declared themselves no longer under 
the protection of the United States of America, and having 
taken up arms against the said United States, it became a 
military necessity to declare martial law. This was ac- 
cordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery 
and martial law in a free country are altogether incom- 

224 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

patible; the persons in these three States— Georgia, Flor- 
ida, and South Carolina — heretofore held as slaves, are 
therefore declared forever free. 

And whereas the same is producing some excitement and 
misunderstanding: therefore, 

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
proclaim and declare that the Government of the United 
States had no knowledge, information, or belief of an in- 
tention on the part of General Hunter to issue such a 
proclamation; nor has it yet any authentic information 
that the document is genuine. And further, that neither 
General Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has 
been authorized by the Government of the United States to 
make a proclamation declaring the slaves of any State 
free; and that the supposed proclamation now in question, 
whether genuine or false, is altogether void so far as re- 
spects such a declaration. 
' I further make known that, whether it b,e competent for 
•fl me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to de- 
clare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether, 
at any time, in any case, it shall have become a necessity 
indispensable to the maintenance of the government to ex- 
i ercise such supposed power, are questions which, under 
my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot 
<feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in 
the field. These are totally different questions from those 
of police regulations in armies and camps. 

On the sixth day of March last, by special message, I 
recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolu- 
tion, to be substantially as follows : 

Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate 
with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of 
slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by 

225 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

such State^ in its discretion^ to compensate for the incon- 
venience, public and private, produced by such change of 
system. 

The resolution, in the language above quoted, was 
adopted by large majorities in both branches of Congress, 
and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn pro- 
posal of the nation to the States and people most immedi- 
ately interested in the subject-matter. To the people of 
those States I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue — I 
beseech you to make arguments for yourselves. You can- 
not, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I 
beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, 
ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partizan poli- 
tics. This proposal makes common cause for a common 
object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the 
Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently 
as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. 
Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been 
done, by one effort, in all past time, as in the providence 
of God it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast 
future not have to lament that you have neglected it. 

[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 25 May 

1862.] 

The enemy is moving north in sufficient force to drive 
General Banks before him — precisely in what force we 
cannot tell. He is also threatening Leesburg and Geary, 
on the Manassas Gap Railroad, from both north and 
south — in precisely what force we cannot tell. I think the 
movement is a general and concerted one, such as would 
not be if he was acting upon the purpose of a very desper- 
ate defense of Richmond. I think the time is near when 

226 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

you must either attack Richmond or give up the job and 
come to the defense of Washington. Let me hear from 
you instantly. 



[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 28 May 

1862.] 

I am very glad of General F. J. Porter's victory. Stilly 
if it was a total rout of the enemy_, I am puzzled to know 
why the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad was not 
seized again^ as you say you have all the railroads but the 
Richmond and Fredericksburg. I am puzzled to see 
how, lacking that, you can have any, except the scrap from 
Richmond to West Point. The scrap of the Virginia Cen- 
tral from Richmond to Hanover Junction, without more, 
is simply nothing. That the whole of the enemy is con- 
centrating on Richmond, I think cannot be certainly 
known to you or me. Saxton, at Harper's Ferry, informs 
us that large forces, supposed to be Jackson's and Ewell's, 
forced his advance from Charlestown to-day. General 
King telegraphs us from Fredericksburg that contrabands 
give certain information that 15,000 left Hanover Junc- 
tion Monday morning to reinforce Jackson. I am pain- 
fully impressed with the importance of the struggle be- 
fore you, and shall aid you all I can consistently with my 
view of due regard to all points. 



227 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to General McClellan, Washington, 26 June 

1862.] 

Your three despatches of yesterday in relation to the 
affair, ending with the statement that you completely 
succeeded in making your point, are very gratifying. 

The latter one of 6.15 p. m., suggesting the probability 
of your being overwhelmed by 200,000, and talking of 
where the responsibility will belong, pains me very much. 
I give you all I can, and act on the presumption that you 
will do the best you can with what you have, while you 
continue, ungenerously I think, to assume that I could give 
you more if I would. I have omitted and shall omit no 
opportunity to send you reinforcements whenever I pos- 
sibly can. 

[Letter to General McClellan, Washington 28 June 

1862.] 

Save your army, at all events. Will send reinforcements 
as fast as we can. Of course they cannot reach you to- 
day, to-morrow, or next day. I have not said you were un- 
generous for saying you needed reinforcements. I thought 
you were ungenerous in assuming that I did not send them 
as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to you and your 
army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself. If you have 
had a drawn battle, or a repulse, it is the price we pay for 
the enemy not being in Washington. We protected Wash- 
ington, and the enemy concentrated on you. Had we 
stripped Washington, he would have been upon us before 
the troops could have gotten to you. Less than a week ago 
you notified us that reinforcements were leaving Richmond 
to come in front of us. It is the nature of the case, and 

228 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

neither you nor the government is to blame. Please tell 
at once the present condition and aspect of things. 



[Letter to Secretary Seward, Washington, 28 June 1862.] 

My dear Sir: My view of the present condition of the 
war is about as follows: 

The evacuation of Corinth and our delay by the flood 
in the Chickahominy have enabled the enemy to concen- 
trate too much force in Richmond for McClellan to suc- 
cessfully attack. In fact there soon will be no substantial 
rebel force anywhere else. But if we send all the force 
from here to McClellan, the enemy will, before we can 
know of it, send a force from Richmond and take Wash- 
ington. Or if a large part of the western army be brought 
here to McClellan, they will let us have Richmond, and re- 
take Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, etc. What should be 
done is to hold what we have in the West, open the Missis- 
sippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without 
more. A reasonable force should in every event be kept 
about Washington for its protection. Then let the coun- 
try give us a hundred thousand new troops in the shortest 
possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or indi- 
rectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other 
place which we now hold, and will substantially end the 
war. I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or 
till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Con- 
gress or the country forsake me; and I would publicly ap- 
peal to the country for this new force were it not that I fear 
a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to 
have a thing understood as it really is. I think the new 
force should be all, or nearly all, infantry, principally be- 
cause such can be raised most cheaply and quickly. 

229 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to General McClellan^ Washington, 1 July 1862.] 

It is impossible to reinforce you for your present emer- 
gency. If we had a million of men, we could not get them 
to you in time. We have not the men to send. If you are 
not strong enough to face the enemy, you must find a place 
of security, and wait, rest, and repair. Maintain your 
ground if you can, but save the army at all events, even if 
you fall back to Fort Monroe. We still have strength 
enough in the country, and will bring it out. 



[Letter to General McClellan, Washington, 2 July 1862.] 

Your despatch of Tuesday morning induces me to hope 
your army is having some rest. In this hope allow me to 
reason with you a moment. When you ask for 50,000 men 
to be promptly sent you, you surely labor under some gross 
mistake of fact. Recently you sent papers showing your 
disposal of forces made last spring for the defense of 
Washington, and advising a return to that plan. I find it 
included in and about Washington 75,000 men. Now, 
please be assured I have not men enough to fill that very 
plan by 15,000. All of Fremont's in the valley, all of 
Banks's, all of McDowell's not with you, and all in Wash- 
ington, taken together, do not exceed, if they reach, 60,000. 
With Wool and Dix added to those mentioned, I have not, 
outside of your army, 75,000 men east of the mountains. 
Thus the idea of sending you 50,000, or any other consid- 
erable force, promptly, is simply absurd. If, in your fre- 
quent mention of responsibility, you have the impression 
that I blame you for not doing more than you can, please 
be relieved of such impression. I only beg that in like 
manner you will not ask impossibilities of me. If you 

230 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

think you are not strong enough to take Richmond just 
now, I do not ask you to try just now. Save the army, 
material and personal, and I will strengthen it for the 
offensive again as fast as I can. The governors of eighteen 
States offer me a new levy of 300,000, which I accept. 



[Letter to General McClellan, Washington, 4 July 1862.] 

I understand your position as stated in your letter and 
by General Marcy. To reinforce you so as to enable you 
to resume the offensive within a month, or even six weeks, 
is impossible. In addition to that arrived and now arriv- 
ing from the Potomac (about 10,000 men, I suppose, and 
about 10,000 I hope you will have from Burnside very 
soon, and about 5,000 from Hunter a little later), I do not 
see how I can send you another man within a month. Under 
these circumstances the defensive for the present must be 
your only care. Save the army — first, where you are, if 
you can; secondly, by removal, if you must. You, on the 
ground, must be the judge as to which you will attempt, 
and of the means for effecting it. I but give it as my opin- 
ion that with the aid of the gunboats and the reinforce- 
ments mentioned above, you can hold your present position 
— provided, and so long as, you can keep the James River 
open below you. If you are not tolerably confident you 
can keep the James River open, you had better remove as 
soon as possible. I do not remember that you have ex- 
pressed any apprehension as to the danger of having your 
communication cut on the river below you, yet I do not 
suppose it can have escaped your attention. 

P. S. If at any time you feel able to take the offensive, 
you are not restrained from doing so. 



231 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Telegram to General McClellan^ Washington^ 5 July 

1862.] 

A thousand thanks for the relief your two despatches 
of 12 and 1 p. m. yesterday gave me. Be assured the hero- 
ism and skill of yourself and officers and men is, and for- 
ever will be^ appreciated. 

If you can hold your present position, we shall hive the 
enemy yet. 

[Appeal to border-state representatives in behalf of com- 
pensated emancipation, 12 July 1862.] 

Gentlemen: After the adjournment of Congress, now 
very near, I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for 
several months. Believing that you of the border States 
hold more power for good than any other equal number of 
members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably waive 
to make this appeal to you. I intend no reproach or com- 
plaint when I assure you that, in my opinion, if you all 
had voted for the resolution in the gradual-emancipation 
message of last March, the war would now be substan- 
tially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of 
the most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the 
States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly 
that in no event will the States you represent ever join 
their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer 
maintain the contest. But you cannot divest them of 
their hope to ultimately have you with them so long as you 
show a determination to perpetuate the institution within 
your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have over- 
whelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim 
you as their own. You and I know what the lever of their 

^32 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they 
can shake you no more forever. Most of you have treated 
me with kindness and consideration^, and I trust you will 
not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your 
own_, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask. Can 
you, for your States, do better than to take the course I 
urge? Discarding punctilio and maxims adapted to more 
manageable times, and looking only to the unprecedentedly 
stern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible 
event? You prefer that the constitutional relation of the 
States to the nation shall be practically restored without 
disturbance of the institution; and if this were done, my 
whole duty in this respect, under the Constitution and my 
oath of office, would be performed. But it is not done, 
and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The incidents 
of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues long, 
as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institu- 
tion in your States will be extinguished by mere friction 
and abrasion — by the mere incidents of the war. It will 
be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. 
Much of its value is gone already. How much better for 
you and for your people to take the step which at once 
shortens the war and secures substantial compensation for 
that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event ! 
How much better to thus save the money which else we 
sink forever in the war ! How much better to do it while we 
can, lest the war ere long render us pecuniarily unable to do 
it ! How much better for you as seller, and the nation as 
buyer, to sell out and buy out that without which the war 
could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be 
sold and the price of it in cutting one another's throats? 
I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision 
at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America 
for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance^ 

233 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and when numbers shall be large enough to be company and 
encouragement for one another^ the freed people will not 
be so reluctant to go. 

I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one 
which threatens division among those who^ united^ are none 
too strong. An instance of it is known to you. General 
Hunter is an honest man. He was^ and I hope still is, my 
friend. I valued him none the less for his agreeing with 
me in the general wish that all men everywhere could be 
free. He proclaimed all men free within certain States, 
and I repudiated the proclamation. He expected more 
good and less harm from the measure than I could believe 
would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfac- 
tion, if not offense, to many whose support the country can- 
not afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The press- 
ure in this direction is still upon me, and is increasing. 
By conceding what I now ask, you can relieve me, and, 
much more, can relieve the country, in this important point. 
Upon these considerations I have again begged your at- 
tention to the message of March last. Before leaving the 
capital, consider and discuss it among yourselves. You are 
patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you consider this 
proposition, and at the least commend it to the consideration 
of your States and people. As you would perpetuate popu- 
lar government for the best people in the world, I be- 
seech you that you do in no wise omit this. Our common 
country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and 
boldest action to bring it speedy relief. Once relieved, 
its form of government is saved to the world, its be- 
loved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and 
its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably 
grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege is 
given to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, and 
to link your own names therewith forever. 

234 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLNi 



[Letter to Reverdy Johnson, Washington, 26 July 1862.] 

My dear Sir: Yours of the l6th, by the hand of Governor 
Shepley, is received. It seems the Union feeling in Loui- 
siana is being crushed out by the course of General Phelps. 
Please pardon me for believing that is a false pretense. 
The people of Louisiana — all intelligent people everywhere 
— know full well that I never had a wish to touch the 
foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With 
perfect knowledge of this they forced a necessity upon me 
to send armies among them, and it is their own fault, not 
mine, that they are annoyed by the presence of General 
Phelps. They also know the remedy — know how to be 
cured of General Phelps. Remove the necessity of his 
presence. And might it not be well for them to consider 
whether they have not already had time enough to do this? 
If they can conceive of anything worse than General 
Phelps within my power, would they not better be looking 
out for it? They very well know the way to avert all this 
is simply to take their place in the Union upon the old 
terms. If they will not do this, should they not receive 
harder blows rather than lighter ones? You are ready to 
say I apply to friends what is due only to enemies. I dis- 
trust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would 
hold my hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of 
professed friends has paralyzed me more in this struggle 
than any other one thing. You remember telling me, the 
day after the Baltimore mob in April, 1861, that it would 
crush all Union feeling in Maryland for me to attempt 
bringing troops over Maryland soil to Washington. I 
brought the troops notwithstanding, and yet there was 
Union feeling enough left to elect a legislature the next 
autumn, which in turn elected a very excellent Union United 

235 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

States senator! I am a patient man — always willing to 
forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to 
give ample time for repentance. Still, I must save this 
government, if possible. What I cannot do, of course I 
will not do ; but it may as well be understood, once for all, 
that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available 
card unplayed. 

[Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, Washington, 28 July 1862.] 

Sir: The copy of a letter addressed to yourself by Mr. 
Thomas J. Durant has been shown to me. The writer ap- 
pears to be an able, a dispassionate, and an entirely sincere 
man. The first part of the letter is devoted to an effort to 
show that the secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted 
against the will of a majority of the people. This is prob- 
ably true, and in that fact may be found some instruction. 
Why did they allow the ordinance to go into effect? Why 
did they not assert themselves? Why stand passive and 
allow themselves to be trodden down by a minority? Why 
did they not hold popular meetings and have a convention 
of their own to express and enforce the true sentiment of 
the State? If pre-organization was against them then, why 
not do this now that the United States army is present to 
protect them? The paralysis — the dead palsy — of the 
government in this whole struggle is, that this class of men 
will do nothing for the government, nothing for them- 
selves, except demanding that the government shall not 
strike its open enemies, lest they be struck by accident! 

Mr. Durant complains that in various ways the relation 
of master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our 
army, and he considers it particularly vexatious that this, in 
part, is done under cover of an act of Congress, while con- 
stitutional guaranties are suspended on the plea of military 

236 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

necessity. The truth is^ that what is done and omitted 
about slaves is done and omitted on the same military neces- 
sity. It is a military necessity to have men and money; 
and we can get neither in sufficient numbers or amounts if 
we keep from or drive from our lines slaves coming to 
them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in 
this direction^ nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till 
he and such as he shall have time to help themselves. 

I am not posted to speak understandingly on all the po- 
lice regulations of which Mr. Durant complains. If expe- 
rience shows any one of them to be wrongs let them be set 
right. I think I can perceive in the freedom of trade 
which Mr. Durant urges that he would relieve both friends 
and enemies from the pressure of the blockade. By this 
he would serve the enemy more effectively than the enemy 
is able to serve himself. I do not say or believe that to 
serve the enemy is the purpose of Mr. Durante or that he is 
conscious of any purpose other than national and patriotic 
ones. Still, if there were a class of men who, having no 
choice of sides in the contest, were anxious only to have 
quiet and comfort for themselves while it rages, and to 
fall in with the victorious side at the end of it without loss 
to themselves, their advice as to the mode of conducting 
the contest would be precisely such as his is. He speaks 
of no duty — apparently thinks of none — resting upon 
Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union 
cause that they should be restrained in trade and passage 
without taking sides. They are to touch neither a sail nor 
a pump, but to be merely passengers — deadheads at that — ■ 
to be carried snug and dry throughout the storm, and safely 
landed right side up. Nay, more: even a mutineer is to go 
untouched, lest these sacred passengers receive an acci- 
dental wound. Of course the rebellion will never be sup- 
pressed in Louisiana if the professed Union men there will 

237 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

neither help to do it nor permit the government to do it 
without their help. Now, I think the true remedy is very- 
different from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does 
not lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but in re- 
moving the necessity for the war. The people of Louisiana 
who wish protection to person and property have but to 
reach forth their hands and take it. Let them in good 
faith reinaugurate the national authority, and set up a State 
government conforming thereto under the Constitution. 
They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the 
army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon 
as such State government can dispense with its presence; 
and the people of the State can then, upon the old consti- 
tutional terms, govern themselves to their own liking. This 
is very simple and easy. 

If they will not do this — if they prefer to hazard all for 
the sake of destroying the government, it is for them to 
consider whether it is probable I will surrender the gov- 
ernment to save them from losing all. If they decline 
what I suggest, you scarcely need to ask what I will do. 
What would you do in my position? Would you drop the 
war where it is ? Or would you prosecute it in future with 
elder-stalk squirts charged with rose-water? Would you 
deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you 
give up the contest, leaving any available means unapplied? 
I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I 
can, and I shall do all I can, to save the government, which 
is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I 
shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast 
for malicious dealing. 



238 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to August Belmont, 31 July 1862.] 

Dear Sir: You send to Mr. W an extract from a 

letter written at New Orleans the 9th instant^ which is 
shown to me. You do not give the writer's name; but 
plainly he is a man of ability, and probably of some note. 
He says: "The time has arrived when Mr. Lincoln must 
take a decisive course. Trying to please everybody, he will 
satisfy nobody. A vacillating policy in matters of im- 
portance is the very worst. Now is the time, if ever, for 
honest men who love their country to rally to its support. 
Why will not the North say officially that it wishes for the 
restoration of the Union as it was? " 

And so, it seems, this is the point on which the writer 
thinks I have no policy. Why will he not read and un- 
derstand what I have said? 

The substance of the very declaration he desires is in the 
inaugural, in each of the two regular messages to Congress, 
and in many, if not all, the minor documents issued by the 
Executive since the inauguration. 

Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has noth- 
ing to do now but to take her place in the Union as it was, 
barring the already broken eggs. The sooner she does so, 
the smaller will be the amount of that which will be past 
mending. This government cannot much longer play a 
game in which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. 
Those enemies must understand that they cannot experi- 
ment for ten years trying to destroy the government, and 
if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt. If they 
expect in any contingency to ever have the Union as it was, 
I join with the writer in saying, "Now is the time." 

Efow much better it would have been for the writer to 
have gone at this, under the protection of the army at New 

239 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Orleans^ than to have sat down in a closet writing complain- 
ing letters northward! 



[Letter to Count A. de Gasparin, Washington, 4 August 

1862.] 

T)ear Sir: Your very acceptable letter, dated Orbe, Can- 
ton de Vaud, Switzerland, 18th of July, 1862, is received. 
The moral effect was the worst of the affair before Rich- 
mond, and that has run its course downward. We are now 
at a stand, and shall soon be rising again, as we hope. I 
believe it is true that, in men and material, the enemy suf- 
fered more than we in that series of conflicts, while it is 
certain he is less able to bear it. 

With us every soldier is a man of character, and must be 
treated with more consideration than is customary in Eu- 
rope. Hence our great army, for slighter causes than 
could have prevailed there, has dwindled rapidly, bringing 
the necessity for a new call earlier than was anticipated. 
We shall easily obtain the new levy, however. Be not 
alarmed if you shall learn that we shall have resorted to 
a draft for part of this. It seems strange even to me, but 
it is true, that the government is now pressed to this course 
by a popular demand. Thousands who wish not to per- 
sonally enter the service, are nevertheless anxious to pay 
and send substitutes, provided they can have assurance that 
unwilling persons, similarly situated, will be compelled to 
do likewise. Besides this, volunteers mostly choose to enter 
newly forming regiments, while drafted men can be sent to 
fill up the old ones, wherein man for man they are quite 
doubly as valuable. 

You ask, " Why is it that the North with her great 
armies so often is found with inferiority of numbers face 
to face with the armies of the South? " While I painfully 

240 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

know the fact^ a military man — which I am not — would 
better answer the question. The fact;, I know^ has not been 
overlooked; and I suppose the cause of its continuance lies 
mainly in the other facts that the enemy holds the interior 
and we the exterior lines; and that we operate where the 
people convey information to the enemy, while he operates 
where they convey none to us. 

I have received the volume and letter which you did me 
the honor of addressing to me, and for which please accept 
my sincere thanks. You are much admired in America 
for the ability of your writings, and much loved for your 
generosity to us and your devotion to liberal principles gen- 
erally. 

You are quite right as to the importance to us, for its 
bearing upon Europe, that we should achieve military suc- 
cesses, and the same is true for us at home as well as 
abroad. Yet it seems unreasonable that a series of suc- 
cesses, extending through half a year, and clearing more 
than 100,000 square miles of country, should help us so 
little, while a single half defeat should hurt us so much. 
But let us be patient. 

I am very happy to know that my course has not con- 
flicted with your judgment of propriety and policy. I can 
only say that I have acted upon my best convictions, with- 
out selfishness or malice, and that by the help of God I 
shall continue to do so. 

[Address at a Union meeting in Washington, 6 August 

1862.] 

Fellow-citizens : I believe there is no precedent for my 
appearing before you on this occasion, but it is also true 
that there is no precedent for your being here yourselves; 
and I offer, in justification of myself and of you, that upon 

241 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

examination I have found nothing in the Constitution 
against it. I, however^ have an impression that there are 
younger gentlemen who vrill entertain j^ou better, and bet- 
ter address your understanding, than I will or could; and 
therefore I propose to detain you but a moment longer. 

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say any- 
thing unless I hope to produce some good by it. The only 
thing I think of just now not likely to be better said by 
some one else, is a matter in which we have heard some 
other persons blamed for what I did myself. There has 
been a very wide-spread attempt to have a quarrel between 
General McClellan and the Secretary of War. Now, I 
occupy a position that enables me to observe that these two 
gentlemen are not nearly so deep in the quarrel as some 
pretending to be their friends. General McClellan's atti- 
tude is such that^ in the very selfishness of his nature, he 
cannot but wish to be successful, and I hope he will; and 
the Secretary of War is in precisely the same situation. If 
the military commanders in the field cannot be successful, 
not only the Secretary of War, but myself, — for the time 
being the master of them both, — cannot but be failures. I 
know General McClellan wishes to be successful, and I 
know he does not wish it any more than the Secretary of 
War for him, and both of them together no more than I 
wish it. Sometimes we have a dispute about how many 
men General McClellan has had, and those who would dis- 
parage him say that he has had a very large number, and 
those who would disparage the Secretary of War insist that 
General McClellan has had a very small number. The 
basis for this is, there is always a wide difference, and on 
this occasion perhaps a wider one than usual, between the 
grand total on McClellan's rolls and the men actually fit 
for duty; and those who would disparage him talk of the 
grand total on paper, and those who would disparage the 

242 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Secretary of War talk of those at present fit for duty. 

General McClellan, has sometimes asked for things that 

the Secretary of War did not give him. General Mc- 

Clellan is not to blame for asking for what he wanted and 

needed^ and the Secretary of War is not to blame for not 

giving when he had none to give. And I say here^ as far 

as I know^ the Secretary of War has withheld no one 

thing at any time in my power to give him. I have no ac- 

' cusation against him. I believe he is a brave and able 

; man^ and I stand here_, as justice requires me to do^ to take 

i upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of 

I War^ as withholding from him. 

I have talked longer than I expected to do^ and now I 
avail myself of my privilege of saying no more. 



[Address on colonization to a deputation of colored men, 

14 August 1862.] 

Your race is suffering, in my judgment, the greatest 
wrong inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to 
be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an 
equality with the white race. You are cut off from many 
of the advantages which the other race enjoys. The as- 
piration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when 
free, but on this broad continent not a single man of your 
race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where 
you are treated the best, and the ban is still upon you. I 
do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as a fact 
with which we have to deal. I cannot alter it if I would. 
It is a fact about which we all think and feel alike, I and 
you. We look to our condition. Owing to the existence 
of the two races on this continent, I need not recount to 
you the effects upon white men, growing out of the institu- 
tion of slavery. 

243 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

I believe in its general evil effects on the white race. 
See our present condition — the country engaged in war — 
our white men cutting one another's throats — none knowing 
how far it will extend — and then consider what we know to 
be the truth. But for your race among us there could 
not be war, although many men engaged on either side do 
not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I 
repeat, without the institution of slavery, and the colored 
race as a basis, the war could not have an existence. It is 
better for us both, therefore, to be separated. I know that 
there are free men among you who, even if they could bet- 
ter their condition, are not as much inclined to go out of 
the country as those who, being slaves, could obtain their 
freedom on this condition. I suppose one of the principal 
difficulties in the way of colonization is that the free col- 
ored man cannot see that his comfort would be advanced 
by it. You may believe that you can live in Washington, 
or elsewhere in the United States, the remainder of your 
life as easily, perhaps more so, than you can in any for- 
eign country; and hence you may come to the conclusion 
that you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a 
foreign country. 

This is (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely self- 
ish view of the case. You ought to do something to help 
those who are not so fortunate as yourselves. There is an 
unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh as it may 
be, for you free colored people to remain with us. Now, if 
you could give a start to the white people, you would open 
a wide door for many to be made free. If we deal with 
those who are not free at the beginning, and whose intel- 
lects are clouded by slavery, we have very poor material to 
start with. If intelligent colored men, such as are before 
me, would move in this matter, much might be accom- 
plished. It is exceedingly important that we have men at 

244 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the beginning capable of thinking as white men, and not 
those who have been systematically oppressed. There is 
much to encourage you. For the sake of your race you 
should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the 
purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white peo- 
ple. It is a cheering thought throughout life, that some- 
thing can be done to ameliorate the condition of those who 
have been subject to the hard usages of the world. It is 
difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is 
worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who 
made him. In the American Revolutionary war sacrifices 
were made by men engaged in it, but they were cheered by 
the future. General Washington himself endured greater 
physical hardships than if he had remained a British sub- 
ject, yet he was a happy man because he was engaged in 
benefiting his race, in doing something for the children of 
his neighbors, having none of his own. 

The colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. 
In a certain sense it is a success. The old President of 
Liberia, Roberts, has just been with me — the first time I 
ever saw him. He says they have within the bounds of 
that colony between three and four hundred thousand peo- 
ple, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode 
Island or Delaware^ or in some of our newer States, and 
less than in some of our larger ones. They are not all 
American colonists or their descendants. Something less 
than 12,000 have been sent thither from this country. 
Many of the original settlers have died; yet, like people 
elsewhere, their offspring outnumber those deceased. The 
question is, if the colored people are persuaded to go any- 
where, why not there? 

One reason for unwillingness to do so is that some of 
you would rather remain within reach of the country of 
your nativity. I do not know how much attachment you 

245 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

may have toward our race. It does not strike me that you 
have the greatest reason to love them. But still you are 
attached to them^ at all events. 

The place I am thinking about for a colony is in Cen- 
tral America. It is nearer to us than Liberia — not much 
more than one fourth as far as Liberia^ and within seven 
days' run by steamers. Unlike Liberia, it is a great line of 
travel — it is a highway. The country is a very excellent 
one for any people, and with great natural resources and 
advantages, and especially because of the similarity of 
climate with your native soil, thus being suited to your 
physical condition. The particular place I have in view is 
to be a great highway from the Atlantic or Caribbean Sea 
to the Pacific Ocean, and this particular place has all the 
advantages for a colony. On both sides there are harbors 
— among the finest in the world. Again, there is evidence 
of very rich coal-mines. A certain amount of coal is valu- 
able in any country. Why I attach so much importance to 
coal is, it will afford an opportunity to the inhabitants for 
immediate employment till they get ready to settle perma- 
nently in their homes. If you take colonists where there 
is no good landing, there is a bad show; and so where there 
is nothing to cultivate and of which to make a farm. But 
if something is started so that you can get your daily 
bread as soon as you reach there, it is a great advantage. 
Coal land is the best thing I know of with which to com- 
mence an enterprise. 

To return — you have been talked to upon this sub- 
ject, and told that a speculation is intended by gentlemen 
who have an interest in the country, including the coal- 
mines. We have been mistaken all our lives if we do not 
know whites, as well as blacks, look to their self-interest. 
Unless among those deficient of intellect, everybody you 
trade with makes something. You meet with these things 

246 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

here and everywhere. If such persons have what will be 
I an advantage to them, the question is, whether it cannot 
j be made of advantage to you? You are intelligent, and 
know that success does not so much depend on external help 
as on self-reliance. Much, therefore, depends upon your- 
selves. As to the coal-mines, I think I see the means 
! available for your self-reliance. I shall, if I get a suffi- 
cient number of you engaged, have provision made that 
you shall not be wronged. If you will engage in the en- 
terprise, I will spend some of the money intrusted to me. 
I am not sure you will succeed. The government may lose 
the money; but we cannot succeed unless we try; and we 
think, with care, we can succeed. The political affairs in 
Central America are not in quite as satisfactory a condi- 
tion as I wish. There are contending factions in that 
quarter; but, it is true, all the factions are agreed alike on 
the subject of colonization, and want it, and are more 
generous than we are here. 

To your colored race they have no objection. I would 
endeavor to have you made the equals, and have the best 
assurance that you should be the equals, of the best. 

The practical thing I want to ascertain is, whether I 
can get a number of able-bodied men, with their wives and 
children, who are willing to go when I present evidence of 
encouragement and protection. Could I get a hundred tol- 
erably intelligent men, with their wives and children, and 
able to " cut their own fodder," so to speak .^ Can I have 
fifty.'' If I could find twenty-five able-bodied men, with 
a mixture of women and children, — good things in the f ams- 
ily relation, I think, — I could make a successful commence- 
ment, I want you to let me know whether this can be done 
or not. This is the practical part of my wish to see you. 
These are subjects of very great importance — worthy of a 
month's study, instead of a speech delivered in an hour. I 

247 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ask you^ tlien^ to consider seriously^ not pertaining to your- 
selves merely, nor for your race and ours for the present 
time, but as one of the things, if successfully managed, 
for the good of mankind — not confined to the present 
generation, but as 

From age to age descends the lay 

To millions yet to be. 
Till far its echoes roll away 

Into eternity. 



[Letter to Horace Greeley, Washington, 22 August 1862.] 

Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed 
to myself through the New York " Tribune." If there be 
in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may 
know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert 
them. If there be in it any inferences which I may be- 
lieve to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue 
against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient 
and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old 
friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right. 

As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I 
have not meant to leave any one in doubt. 

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest 
way under the Constitution. The sooner the national au- 
thority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be " the 
Union as it was." If there be those who would not save 
the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, 
I do not agree with them. If there be those who would 
not save the Union unless they could at the same time de- 
stroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount 
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not 
either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the 

248 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if 

I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and 

if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, 

I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the 

■; colored race_, I do because I believe it helps to save the 

Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not 

believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less 

whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, 

! and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more 

I will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when 

shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as 

they shall appear to be true views. 

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of 
official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-ex- 
pressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be 
free. 

[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 12 Septem- 
ber 1862.] 

Governor Curtin telegraphs me: 

I have advices that Jackson is crossing the Potomac at 
Williamsport, and probably the whole rebel army will be 
drawn from Maryland. 

Receiving nothing from Harper's Ferry or Martinsburg 

I to-day, and positive information from Wheeling that the 

line is cut, corroborates the idea that the enemy is recross- 

ing the Potomac. Please do not let him get off without 

being hurt. 



249 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

[Reply to a committee from the religious denominations of 
Chicago, asking the president to issue a proclamation of 
emancipation, 13 September 1862.] 

The subject presented in the memorial is one upon 
which I have thought much for weeks past, and I may even 
say for months. I am approached with the most opposite 
opinions and advice, and that by religious men who are 
equally certain that they represent the divine will. I am 
sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in 
that belief, and perhaps in some respects both. I hope it 
will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable 
that God would reveal his will to others on a point so con- 
nected with my duty, it might be supposed he would re- 
veal it directly to me ; for, unless I am more deceived in my- 
self than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will 
of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it 
is, I will do it. These are not^ however, the days of mir- 
acles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to 
expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physi- 
cal facts of the case,, ascertain what is possible, and learn 
what appears to be wise and right. 

The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For 
instance, the other day four gentlemen of standing and in- 
telligence from New York called as a delegation on bus- 
iness connected with the war; but, before leaving, two of 
them earnestly beset me to proclaim general emancipation, 
upon which the other two at once attacked them. You 
know also that the last session of Congress had a decided 
majority of antislavery men, yet they could not unite on 
this policy. And the same is true of the religious people. 
Why, the rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal 
more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and expect- 
ing God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers who 

250 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

had been taken prisoner told Senator Wilson a few days 
since that he met with nothing so discouraging as the evi- 
dent sincerity of those he was among in their prayers. But 
we will talk over the merits of the case. 

What good would a proclamation of emancipation from 
me do^ especially as we are now situated ? I do not want to 
issue a document that the whole world will see must neces- 
sarily be inoperative^ like the Pope's bull against the 
comet. Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot 
even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? Is 
there a single court, or magistrate, or individual that would 
be influenced by it there .^ And what reason is there to 
think it would have any greater effect upon the slaves than 
the late law of Congress, which I approved, and which 
offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel mas- 
ters who come within our lines? Yet I cannot learn 
that that law has caused a single slave to come over to us. 
And suppose they could be induced by a proclamation of 
freedom from me to throw themselves upon us, what 
should we do with them? How can we feed and care for 
such a multitude ? General Butler wrote me a few days since 
that he was issuing more rations to the slaves who have 
rushed to him than to all the white troops under his com- 
mand. They eat, and that is all; though it is true Gen- 
eral Butler is feeding the whites also by the thousand, for 
it nearly amounts to a famine there. If, now, the press- 
ure of the war should call off our forces from New Or- 
leans to defend some other point, what is to prevent the 
masters from reducing the blacks to slavery again? For 
I am told that whenever the rebels take any black pris- 
oners, free or slave, they immediately auction them off. 
They did so with those they took from a boat that was 
aground in the Tennessee River a few days ago. And 
then I am very ungenerously attacked for it! For in- 

251 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

stance^ when^ after the late battles at and near Bull Run, 
an expedition went out from Washington under a flag of 
truce to bury the dead and bring in the wounded, and the 
rebels seized the blacks who went along to help, and sent 
them into slavery, Horace Greeley said in his paper that 
the government would probably do nothing about it. What 
could I do? 

Now, then, tell me, if you please, what possible result of 
good would follow the issuing of such a proclamation as 
you desire? Understand, I raise no objections against it 
on legal or constitutional grounds; for, as commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy, in time of war I suppose I 
have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the 
enemy; nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in view 
of possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at 
the South. I view this matter as a practical war measure, 
to be decided on according to the advantages or disadvan- 
tages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion. 

I admit that slavery is the root of the rebellion, or at 
least its sine qua non. The ambition of politicians may 
have instigated them to act, but they would have been im- 
potent without slavery as their instrument. I will also 
concede that emancipation would help us in Europe, and 
convince them that we are incited by something more than 
ambition. I grant, further, that it would help somewhat 
at the North, though not so much, I fear, as you and those 
you represent imagine. Still, some additional strength 
would be added in that way to the war, and then, unques- 
tionably, it would weaken the rebels by drawing off their 
laborers, which is of great importance; but I am not so 
sure we could do much with the blacks. If we were to 
arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would be 
in the hands of the rebels; and, indeed, thus far we have 
not had arms enough to equip our white troops. I will 

252 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

mention another thing, though it meet only your scorn and 
contempt. There are fifty thousand bayonets in the 
Union armies from the border slave States. It would be 
a serious matter if, in consequence of a proclamation such 
as you desire, they should go over to the rebels. I do not 
think they all would — not so many, indeed, as a year ago, 
or as six months ago — not so many to-day as yesterday. 
Every day increases their Union feeling. They are also 
getting their pride enlisted, and want to beat the rebels. 
Let me say one thing more: I think you should admit that 
we already have an important principle to rally and unite 
the people, in the fact that constitutional government is at 
stake. This is a fundamental idea going down about as 
deep as anything. 

Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these 
objections. They indicate the difficulties that have thus 
far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. 
I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the 
slaves, but hold the matter under advisement; and I can 
assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and 
night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be 
God's will, I will do. I trust that in the freedom with 
which I have canvassed your views I have not in any re- 
spect injured your feelings. 

[From the preliminary emancipation proclamation, 
22 September 1862.] 

I, Abraham Lincoln^ President of the United States of 
America, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as 
heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of 
practically restoring the constitutional relation between 
the United States and each of the States, and the people 

253 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

thereof_, in which States that relation is or may be sus- 
pended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose^ upon the next meeting of Con- 
gresSj to again recommend the adoption of a practical 
measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or 
rejection of all slave States^ so called_, the people whereof 
may not then be in rebellion against the United States^ and 
which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or there- 
after may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolish- 
ment of slavery within their respective limits ; and that 
the effort to colonize persons of African descent with their 
consent upon this continent or elsewhere, with the pre- 
viously obtained consent of the governments existing there, 
will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons 
held as slaves within any State or designated part of a 
State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for- 
ever free; and the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval authority thereof, 
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, 
and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any 
of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual 
freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
aforesaid, by proclamation designate the States and parts 
of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and the 
fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that 
day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the 
United States by members chosen thereto at elections 
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State 
shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong 

254 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State, and the people thereof^ are not then in 
rebellion against the United States. 

[Letter introducing Edward Everett, Washington, 24 Sep- 
tember 1862.] 

Whom it May Concern: Hon. Edward Everett goes to 
Europe shortly. His reputation and the present condi- 
tion of our country are such that his visit there is sure to 
attract notice, and may be misconstrued. I therefore 
think fit to say that he bears no mission from this govern- 
ment; and yet no gentleman is better able to correct mis- 
understandings in the minds of foreigners in regard to 
American affairs. 

While I commend him to the consideration of those whom 
he may meet, I am quite conscious that he could better in- 
troduce me than I him in Europe. 

[Reply to serenade 24 September 1862.] 

I appear before you to do little more than acknowledge 
the courtesy you pay me, and to thank you for it. I have 
not been distinctly informed why it is that on this occasion 
you appear to do me this honor, though I suppose it is be- 
cause of the proclamation. What I did, I did after a very 
full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense 
of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no 
mistake. I shall make no attempt on this occasion to sus- 
tain what I have done or said by any comment. It is now 
for the country and the world to pass judgment and, maybe, 
take action upon it. 

I will say no more upon this subject. In my position I 
am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so 

255 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

great as the difficulties of those who upon the battle-field 
are endeavoring to purchase with tlieir blood and their lives 
the future happiness and prosperity of this country. Let 
us never forget them. On the fourteenth and seventeenth 
days of this present month there have been battles bravely, 
skilfully, and successfully fought. We do not yet know 
the particulars. Let us be sure that, in giving praise to 
certain individuals, we do no injustice to others. I only 
ask you, at the conclusion of these few remarks, to give 
three hearty cheers for all good and brave officers and men 
who fought those successful battles. 

[Letter to Hannibal Hamlin, Washington, 28 September 

1862.] 

My dear Sir: Your kind letter of the 25th is just re- 
ceived. It is known to some that while I hope something 
from the proclamation, my expectations are not as sanguine 
as are those of some friends. The time for its effect south- 
ward has not come; but northward the effect should be in- 
stantaneous. 

It is six days old, and while commendation in newspapers 
and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could 
wish, the stocks have declined, and troops come forward 
more slowly than ever. This, looked soberly in the face, 
is not very satisfactory. We have fewer troops in the field 
at the end of the six days than we had at the beginning — 
the attrition among the old outnumbering the addition by 
the new. The North responds to the proclamation suffi- 
ciently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels. 

I wish I could write more cheerfully; nor do I thank 
you the less for the kindness of your letter. 



256 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[Meditation on Divine Will^ SO (?) September 1862.] 

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party- 
claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both 
may be^ and one must be_, wrong. God cannot be for and 
against the same thing at the same time. In the present 
civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something 
different from the purpose of either party; and yet the 
human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the 
best adaptation to effect his purpose. I am almost ready 
to say that this is probably true ; that God wills this contest, 
and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great 
power on the minds of the now contestants, he could have 
either saved or destroyed the Union without a human con- 
test. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, he could 
give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the con- 
test proceeds. 

[From a letter to General McClellan, Washington, 
13 October 1862.] 

My dear Sir: You remember my speaking to you of what 
I called your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious 
when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is 
constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his 
equal in prowess, and act upon the claim? As I under- 
stand, you telegraphed General Haileck that you cannot 
subsist your army at Winchester unless the railroad from 
Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order. But 
the enemy does now subsist his army at Winchester, at a 
distance nearly twice as great from railroad transportation 
as you would have to do without the railroad last named. 
He now wagons from Culpeper Court House, which is just 
about twice as far as you would have to do from Harper's 

257 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

Ferry. He is certainly not more than half as well provided 
with wagons as you are. I certainly should be pleased for 
3''ou to have the advantage of the railroad from Harper's 
Ferry to Winchester_, but it wastes all the remainder of 
autumn to give it to you^ and in fact ignores the question 
of time^ which cannot and must not be ignored. Again, 
one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is to 
"operate upon the enemy's communications as much as pos- 
sible without exposing your own." You seem to act as if 
this applies against you, but cannot apply in your favor. 
Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he 
would break your communication with Richmond within the 
next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Penn- 
sylvania; but if he does so in full force, he gives up his 
communications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to 
do but to follow and ruin him. If he does so with less than 
full force, fall upon and beat what is left behind all the 
easier. Exclusive of the water-line, you are now nearer 
Richmond than the enemy is by the route that you can and 
he must take. Why can you not reach there before him, 
unless you admit that he is more than your equal on a 
march? His route is the arc of a circle, while yours is the 
chord. The roads are as good on yours as on his. You 
know I desired, but did not order, you to cross the Potomac 
below, instead of above, the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. 
My idea was that this would at once menace the enemy's 
communications, which I would seize if he would permit. 

If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, 
holding his communications. If he should prevent our seiz- 
ing his communications and move toward Richmond, I would 
press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity 
should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond 
on the inside track. I say "try"; if we never try, we shall 
never succeed. If he makes a stand at Winchester, moving 

258 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

neither north nor south^ I would fight him there^ on the 
idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage 
of coming to us^ we never can when we bear the wastage 
of going to him. This proposition is a simple truth^ and is 
too important to be lost sight of for a moment. In coming 
to us he tenders us an advantage which we should not waive. 
We should not so operate as to merely drive him away. As 
we must beat him somewhere or fail finally, we can do it, 
if at all^ easier near to us than far away. If we cannot 
beat the enemy where he now is, we never can, he again 
being within the intrenchments of Richmond. 

[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 24 October 

1862.] 

I have just read your despatch about sore-tongued and 
fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the 
horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam 
that fatigues anything? 

[Telegram to General McClellan, Washington, 27 October 

1862.] 

Yours of yesterday received. Most certainly I intend 
no injustice to any, and if I have done any I deeply regret 
it. To be told, after more than five weeks' total inaction 
of the army, and during which period we have sent to the 
army every fresh horse we possibly could, amounting in 
the whole to 7918, that the cavalry horses were too much 
fatigued to move, presents a very cheerless, almost hope- 
less, prospect for the future, and it may have forced some- 
thing of impatience in my despatch. If not recruited and 
rested then, when could they ever be? I suppose the river 
is rising, and I am glad to believe you are crossing. 

259 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Telegram to General McClellan. Washington^ 27 October 

1862.] 

Your despatch of 3 p. m. to-day, in regard to filling up 
old regiments with drafted men, is received, and the request 
therein shall be complied with as far as practicable. 

And now I ask a distinct answer to the question, Is it 
your purpose not to go into action again until the men now 
being drafted in the States are incorporated into the old 
regiments ? 

[Order relieving General McClellan and making other 
changes, 5 November 1862.] 

By direction of the President, it is ordered that Major- 
General McClellan be relieved from the command of the 
Army of the Potomac, and that Major-General Burnside 
take the command of that army. Also that Major-General 
Hunter take command of the corps in said army which is 
now commanded by General Burnside. That Major-General 
Fitz-John Porter be relieved from command of the corps 
he now commands in said army, and that Major-General 
Hooker take command of said corps. 

The general-in~chief is authorized, in [his] discretion, 
to issue an order substantially as the above, forthwith, or 
so soon as he may deem proper. 

[Order for Sabbath observance, Washington, 15 November 

1862.] 

The President, commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sab- 
bath by the officers and men in the military and naval ser- 

260 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

vice. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed 
weekly rest^ the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and 
sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a 
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, 
demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced 
to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and char- 
acter of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause 
they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of the day 
or name of the Most High. "At this time of public dis- 
tress" — adopting the words of Washington in 1776 — "men 
may find enough to do in the service of God and their coun- 
try without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality." 
The first general order issued by the Father of his Country 
after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit 
in which our institutions were founded and should ever be 
defended. "The general hopes and trusts that every officer 
and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Chris- 
tian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of 
his country." 



[Letter to Hon. G. Robertson, Washington, 20 November 

1862. Not sent.] 

My dear Sir: Your despatch of yesterday is just received. 
I believe you are acquainted with the American classics (if 
there be such), and probably remember a speech of Patrick 
Henry in which he represented a certain character in the 
Revolutionary times as totally disregarding all questions of 
country, and "hoarsely bawling, 'Beef ! beef ! ! beef ! ! !' " 

Do you not know that I may as well surrender the con- 
test directly as to make any order the obvious purpose of 
which would be to return fugitive slaves } 



261 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to G. F. Shepley, military governor of Louisiana, 
Washington, 21 November 1862.] 

Dear Sir: Dr. Kennedy, bearer of this, has some appre- 
hension that Federal officers not citizens of Louisiana may 
be set up as candidates for Congress in that State. In my 
view there could be no possible object in such an election. 
We do not particularly need members of Congress from 
there to enable us to get along with legislation here. What 
we do want is the conclusive evidence that respectable cit- 
izens of Louisiana are willing to be members of Congress 
and to swear support to the Constitution, and that other 
respectable citizens there are willing to vote for them and 
send them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as rep- 
resentatives, elected, as would be understood (and perhaps 
really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be disgusting 
and outrageous; and were I a member of Congress here, 
I would vote against admitting any such man to a seat. 



[Letter to Governor Shepley, Washington, 21 November 

1862.] 

My dear Sir: Your letter of the 6th instant to the Secre- 
tary of War has been placed in my hands ; and I am an- 
noyed to learn from it that at its date nothing had been 
done about congressional elections. On the 14th of Octo- 
ber I addressed a letter to General Butler, yourself, and 
others, upon this very subject, sending it by Hon. Mr. 
Bouligny. I now regret the necessity of inferring that 
you had not seen this letter up to the 6th instant. I inclose 
you a copy of it, and also a copy of another addressed to 
yourself this morning upon the same general subject, and 

262 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

placed in the hands of Dr. Kennedy. I ask attention to 
both. 

I wish elections for congressmen to take place in Loui- 
siana; but I wish it to be a movement of the people of the 
districts^ and not a movement of our military and quasi- 
military authorities there. I merely wish our authorities to 
give the people a chance — to protect them against secession 
interference. Of course the election cannot be according 
to strict law. By State law there is_, I suppose, no election 
day before January; and the regular election officers will 
not act in many cases, if in any. These knots must be cut, 
the main object being to get an expression of the people. 
If they would fix a day and a way for themselves, all the 
better; but if they stand idle, not seeming to know what to 
do, do )^ou fix these things for them by proclamation. And 
do not waste a day about it, but fix the election day early 
enough, that we can hear the result here by the first of 
January. Fix a day for an election in all the districts, and 
have it held in as many places as you can. 

[Letter to General N. P. Banks, Washington, 22 November 

1862.] 

My dear General Banks: Early last week you left me in 
high hope with your assurance that you would be off with 
your expedition at the end of that week, or early in this. 
It is now the end of this, and I have just been overwhelmed 
and confounded with the sight of a requisition made by you 
which, I am assured, cannot be filled and got off within an 
hour short of two months. I inclose you a copy of the requi- 
sition, in some hope that it is not genuine — that you have 
never seen it. My dear general, this expanding and piling 
up of impedimenta has been, so far, almost our ruin, and 
will be our final ruin if it is not abandoned. If you had 

2QS 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

the articles of this requisition upon the wharf, with the 
necessary animals to make them of any use, and forage for 
the animals, you could not get vessels together in two weeks 
to carry the whole, to say nothing of your twenty thousand 
men ; and, having the vessels, you could not put the cargoes 
aboard in two weeks more. And, after all, where you are 
going you have no use for them. When you parted with 
me you had no such ideas in your mind. I know you had 
not, or you could not have expected to be off so soon as you 
said. You must get back to something like the plan you 
had then, or your expedition is a failure before you start. 
You must be off before Congress meets. You would be 
better off anywhere, and especially where you are going, 
for not having a thousand wagons doing nothing but haul- 
ing forage to feed the animals that draw them, and taking 
at least two thousand men to care for the wagons and ani- 
mals, who otherwise might be two thousand good soldiers. 
Now, dear general, do not think this is an ill-natured letter; 
it is the very reverse. The simple publication of this requi- 
sition would ruin you. 

[Letter to Carl Schurz, Washington, 24 November 1862.] 

My dear Sir: I have just received and read your letter 
of the 20th. The purport of it is that we lost the late elec- 
tions and the Administration is failing because the war is 
unsuccessful, and that I must not flatter myself that I am 
not justly to blame for it. I certainly know that if the war 
fails, the Administration fails, and that I will be blamed 
for it, whether I deserve it or not. And I ought to be blamed 
if I could do better. You think I could do better ; therefore 
you blame me already. I think I could not do better ; there- 
fore I blame you for blaming me. I understand you now 
to be willing to accept the help of men who are not Re- 

264 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

publicans^ provided they have "heart in it." Agreed. I 
want no others. But who is to be the judge of hearts, or 
of "heart in it"? If I must discard my own judgment and 
take yours, I must also take that of others ; and by the time 
I should reject all I should be advised to reject, I should 
have none left. Republicans or others — not even yourself. 
For be assured, my dear sir, there are men who have "heart 
in it" that think you are performing your part as poorly 
as you think I am performing mine. I certainly have been 
dissatisfied with the slowness of Buell and McClellan; but 
before I relieved them I had great fears I should not find 
successors to them who would do better; and I am sorry to 
add that I have seen little since to relieve those fears. 

I do not clearly see the prospect of any more rapid move- 
ments. I fear we shall at last find out that the difficulty 
is in our case rather than in particular generals. I wish to 
disparage no one — certainly not those who sympathize with 
me; but I must say I need success more than I need sym- 
pathy, and that I have not seen the so much greater evidence 
of getting success from my sympathizers than from those 
who are denounced as the contrary. It does seem to me that 
in the field the two classes have been very much alike in 
what they have done and what they have failed to do. In 
sealing their faith with their blood. Baker and Lyon and 
Bohlen and Richardson, Republicans, did all that men could 
do; but did they any more than Kearny and Stevens and 
Reno and Mansfield, none of whom were Republicans, and 
some at least of whom have been bitterly and repeatedly 
denounced to me as secession sympathizers? I will not 
perform the ungrateful task of comparing cases of failure. 

In answer to your question, "Has it not been publicly 
stated in the newspapers, and apparently proved as a fact, 
that from the commencement of the war the enemy was 
continually supplied with information by some of the con- 

265 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

fidential subordinates of as important an officer as Adjutant- 
General Thomas?" I must say "No^" as far as my knowl- 
edge extends. And I add that if you can give any tangible 
evidence upon the subject^ I will thank you to come to this 
city and do so. 



[From the annual message to congress, 1 December 1862.] 

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, 
and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of 
certain durability. "One generation passeth away, and an- 
other generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever." It 
is of the first importance to duly consider and estimate this 
ever-enduring part. That portion of the earth's surface 
which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United 
States is well adapted to be the home of one national family, 
and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent 
and its variety of climate and productions are of advantage 
in this age for one people, whatever they might have been 
in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence have 
brought these to be an advantageous combination for one 
united people. 

In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out the total 
inadequacy of disunion as a remedy for the differences be- 
tween the people of the two sections. ... 

There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a na- 
tional boundary upon which to divide. Trace through, from 
east to west, upon the line between the free and slave coun- 
try, and we shall find a little more than one third of its 
length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon 
to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while nearly all 
its remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over which 
people may walk back and forth without any consciousness 
of their presence. No part of this line can be made any 

266 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

more difficult to pass by writing it down on paper or parch- 
ment as a national boundary. The fact of separation, if it 
comes, gives up on the part of the seceding section the fugi- 
tive-slave clause along with all other constitutional obliga- 
tions upon the section seceded from, while I should expect 
no treaty stipulation would be ever made to take its place. 
But there is another difficulty. The great interior region, 
bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by the British do- 
minions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the 
line along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and 
which includes part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of 
Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of 
Dakota, Nebraska, and part of Colorado, already has above 
ten millions of people, and will have fifty millions within 
fifty years if not prevented by any political folly or mis- 
take. It contains more than one third of the country owned 
by the United States — certainly more than one million of 
square miles. Once half as populous as Massachusetts al- 
ready is, it would have more than seventy-five millions of 
people. A glance at the map shows that, territorially speak- 
ing, it is the great body of the republic. The other parts 
are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent region slop- 
ing west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific being the 
deepest and also the richest in undeveloped resources. In 
the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which 
proceed from them, this great interior region is naturally 
one of the most important in the world. Ascertain from 
the statistics the small proportion of the region which has, 
as yet, been brought into cultivation, and also the large and 
rapidly increasing amount of its products, and we shall be 
overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect presented ; 
and yet this region has no sea-coast, touches no ocean any- 
where. As part of one nation, its people now find, and may 

267 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

forever find, their way to Europe by New York, to South 
America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San 
Francisco. But separate our common country into two na- 
tions, as designed by the present rebellion, and every man 
of this great interior region is thereby cut off from some 
one or more of these outlets — not, perhaps, by a physical 
barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations. 

And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line 
may be fixed. Place it between the now free and slave coun- 
try, or place it south of Kentucky or north of Ohio, and 
still the truth remains that none south of it can trade to 
any port or place north of it, and none north of it can trade 
to any port or place south of it, except upon terms dictated 
by a government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, 
and south, are indispensable to the well-being of the people 
inhabiting, and to inhabit, this vast interior region. Which 
of the three may be the best, is no proper question. All are 
better than either; and all of right belong to that people 
and to their successors forever. True to themselves, they 
will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but will vow 
rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the mar- 
ginal regions less interested in these communications to and 
through them to the great outside world. They, too, and 
each of them, must have access to this Egypt of the West 
without paying toll at the crossing of any national 
boundary. 

Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, 
not from the land we inhabit, not from our national home- 
stead. There is no possible severing of this but would mul- 
tiply, and not mitigate, evils among us. In all its adapta^ 
tions and aptitudes it demands union and abhors separation. 
In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however much of 
blood and treasure the separation might have cost. 

Our strife pertains to ourselves — ^to the passing genera- 

268 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tions of men; and it can without convulsion be hushed for- 
ever with the passing of one generation. 

We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget 
that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The 
world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we 
here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving 
freedom to the slave^ we assure freedom to the free — hon- 
orable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We 
shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. 
Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way 
is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, 
the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. 



[Letter to army of the Potomac, Washington, 22 Decem- 
ber 1862.] 

To the Army of the Potomac: I have just read your com- 
manding general's report of the battle of Fredericksburg. 
Although you were not successful, the attempt was not an 
error, nor the failure other than accident. The courage with 
which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against 
an intrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success 
with which vou crossed and recrossed the river in the face 
of the enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a 
great army, which will yet give victory to the cause of the 
country and of popular government. 

Condoling with the mourners for the dead, and sympa- 
thizing with the severely wounded, I congratulate you that 
the number of both is comparatively so small. 

I tender to you, officers and soldiers, the thanks of the 
nation. 



269 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Final emancipation proclamation, 1 January 1863.] 

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the 
United States, containing, among other things, the follow- 
ing, to wit : 

That on the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all per- 
sons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of 
a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever 
free; and the Executive Government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority thereof, will rec- 
ognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will 
do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, 
in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts 
of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and 
the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that 
day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the 
United States by members chosen thereto at elections 
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State 
shall have participated, shall in the absence of strong coun- 
tervailing testimony be deemed conclusive evidence that 
such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion 
against the United States. 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, 
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and 

270 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary 
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first 
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose 
so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of 100 
days from the day first above mentioned, order and desig- 
nate as the States and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the 
United States, the following, to wit: 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. 
Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. 
James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, 
St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of 
New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the 
forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also 
the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth 
City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities 
of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts 
are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were 
not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore- 
said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves 
within said designated States and parts of States are, and 
henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Gov- 
ernment of the United States, including the military and 
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be 
free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self- 
defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when 
allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such per- 
sons of suitable condition will be received into the armed 

271 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

service of the United States to garrison forts^ positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts 
in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- 
tice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, 
I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gra- 
cious favor of Almighty God. 



[Letter to General J. A. McClernand, Washington, 
8 January 1863.] 

My dear Sir: Your interesting communication by the 
hand of Major Scates is received. I never did ask more, 
nor ever was willing to accept less, than for all the States, 
and the people thereof, to take and hold their places and 
their rights in the Union, under the Constitution of the 
United States. For this alone have I felt authorized to 
struggle, and I seek neither more nor less now. Still, to 
use a coarse but an expressive figure, "broken eggs cannot 
be mended." I have issued the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, and I cannot retract it. After the commencement of 
hostilities, I struggled nearly a year and a half to get along 
without touching the "institution"; and when finally I con- 
ditionally determined to touch it, I gave a hundred days' 
fair notice of my purpose to all the States and people, 
within which time they could have turned it wholly aside 
by simply again becoming good citizens of the United 1 
States. 

They chose to disregard it, and I made the peremptory 
proclamation on what appeared to me to be a military ne- 
cessity. And being made, it must stand. As to the States 
not included in it, of course they can have their rights in 
the Union as of old. Even the people of the States included, 
if they choose, need Mot to be hurt by it. Let them adopt 

272 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

systems of apprenticeship for the colored people, conform- 
ing substantially to the most approved plans of gradual 
emancipation; and with the aid they can have from the 
General Government they may be nearly as well off, in this 
respect, as if the present trouble had not occurred, and 
much better off than they can possibly be if the contest 
continues persistently. 

As to any dread of my having a "purpose to enslave or 
exterminate the whites of the South," I can scarcely believe 
that such dread exists. It is too absurd. I believe you can 
be my personal witness that no man is less to be dreaded 
for undue severity in any case. 

If the friends you mention really wish to have peace upon 
the old terms, they should act at once. Every day makes 
the case more difficult. 

They can so act with entire safety, so far as I am con- 
cerned. 



[Letter to the working-men of Manchester, Washington, 
19 January 1863.] 

To the Working-men of Manchester: I have the honor 
to acknowledge the receipt of the address and resolutions 
which you sent me on the eve of the new year. When I 
came, on the 4th of March, 1861, through a free and consti- 
tutional election to preside in the Government of the United 
States, the country was found at the verge of civil war. 
Whatever might have been the cause, or whosesoever the 
fault, one duty, paramount to all others, was before me, 
namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution 
and the integrity of the Federal Republic. A conscientious 
purpose to perform this duty is the key to all the measures 
of administration which have been and to all which will 
hereafter be pursued. Under our frame of government and 

273 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

my official oath^ I could not depart from this purpose if I 
would. It is not always in the power of governments to en- 
large or restrict the scope of moral results which follow 
the policies that they may deem it necessary for the public 
safety from time to time to adopt. 

I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation 
rests solely with the American people; but I have at the 
same time been aware that favor or disfavor of foreign na- 
tions might have a material influence in enlarging or pro- 
longing the struggle with disloyal men in which the country 
is engaged. A fair examination of history has served to 
authorize a belief that the past actions and influences of 
the United States were generally regarded as having been 
beneficial toward mankind. I have, therefore, reckoned 
upon the forbearance of nations. Circumstances — to some 
of which you kindly allude — induce me especially to expect 
that if justice and good faith should be practised by the 
United States, they would encounter no hostile influence 
on the part of Great Britain. It is now a pleasant duty to 
acknowledge the demonstration you have given of your de- 
sire that a spirit of amity and peace toward this country 
may prevail in the councils of your Queen, who is respected 
and esteemed in your own country only more than she is 
by the kindred nation which has its home on this side of 
the Atlantic. 

I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the work- 
ing-men at Manchester, and in all Europe, are called to en- 
dure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously repre- 
sented that the attempt to overthrow this government, which 
was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to sub- 
stitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis 
of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. 
Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the working- 
men of Europe have been subjected to severe trials, for the 

274 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under 
the circumstances, I cannot but regard your decisive utter- 
ances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian 
heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any 
country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assur- 
ance of the inherent power of truth, and of the ultimate and 
universal triumph of justice, humanity, and freedom. I 
do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will 
be sustained by your great nation; and, on the other hand, 
I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite 
admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of 
friendship among the American people. I hail this inter- 
change of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that whatever 
else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your 
country or my own, the peace and friendship which now 
exist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my 
desire to make them, perpetual. 

[Letter to General J. Hooker, Washington, 26 January 

1863.] 

General: I have placed you at the head of the Army of 
the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear 
to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for 
you to know that there are some things in regard to which 
I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a 
brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also 
believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in 
which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, 
which is a valuable if not an indispensable quality. You 
are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good 
rather than harm; but I think that during General Burn- 
side's command of the army you have taken counsel of your 
ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, in which 

275 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

you did a great wrong to the country and to a most merito- 
rious and honorable brother officer. I have heard^ in such a 
way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the 
army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it 
was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the 
command. Only those generals who gain successes can set 
up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, 
and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will sup- 
port you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more 
nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. 
I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse 
into the army, of criticizing their commander and with- 
holding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I 
shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you 
nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good 
out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it; and now 
beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy 
and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories. 

[Letter to the working-men of London, Washington, 
2 February 1863.] 

To the Working-men of London : I have received the New 
Year's address which you have sent me, with a sincere ap- 
preciation of the exalted and humane sentiments by which 
it was inspired. 

As these sentiments are manifestly the enduring support 
of the free institutions of England, so I am sure also that 
they constitute the only reliable basis for free institutions 
throughout the world. 

The resources, advantages, and powers of the American 
people are very great, and they have consequently succeeded 
to equally great responsibilities. It seems to have devolved 
upon them to test whether a government established on the 

276 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

principles of human freedom can be maintained against an 
effort to build one upon the exclusive foundation of human 
bondage. They will rejoice with me in the new evidences 
which your proceedings furnish that the magnanimity they 
are exhibiting is justly estimated by the true friends of 
freedom and humanity in foreign countries. 

Accept my best wishes for your individual welfare, and 
for the welfare and happiness of the whole British people. 



[Letter to Rev. Alexander Reed, Washington, 22 February 

1863.] 

My dear Sir: Your note, by which you, as general super- 
intendent of the United States Christian Commission, invite 
me to preside at a meeting to be held this day at the hall 
of the House of Representatives in this city, is received. 

While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must decline 
to preside, I cannot withhold my approval of the meeting 
and its worthy objects. Whatever shall be sincerely, and 
in God's name, devised for the good of the soldier and sea- 
man in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be 
blest. And whatever shall tend to turn our thoughts from 
the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices, and 
jealousies incident to a great national trouble such as ours, 
and to fix them upon the vast and long-enduring conse- 
quences, for weal or for woe, which are to result from the 
struggle, and especially to strengthen our reliance on the 
Supreme Being for the final triumph of the right, cannot 
but be well for us all. 

The birthday of Washington and the Christian Sabbath 
coinciding this year, and suggesting together the highest 
interests of this life and of that to come, is most propitious 
for the meeting proposed. 



277 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to General Hunter^ Washington, 1 April 1863.] 

My dear Sir: I am glad to see the accounts of your col- 
ored force at Jacksonville, Florida. I see the enemy are 
driving at them fiercely, as is to be expected. It is im- 
portant to the enemy that such a force shall not take shape 
and grow and thrive in the South, and in precisely the same 
proportion it is important to us that it shall. Hence the ut- 
most caution and vigilance is necessary on our part. The 
enemy will make extra efforts to destroy them, and we should 
do the same to preserve and increase them. 

[Indorsement on General Hooker's plan of campaign 
against Richmond, 11 April 1863.] 

My opinion is that just now, with the enemy directly 
ahead of us, there is no eligible route for us into Richmond; 
and consequently a question of preference between the Rap- 
pahannock route and the James River route is a contest 
about nothing. Hence our prime obj ect is the enemy's army 
in front of us, and is not with or about Richmond at all, 
unless it be incidental to the main object. 

What then.^ The two armies are face to face, with a 
narrow river between them. Our communications are 
shorter and safer than are those of the enemy. For this 
reason we can, with equal powers, fret him more than he 
can us. I do not think that by raids toward Washington 
he can derange the Army of the Potomac at all. He has 
no distant operations which can call any of the Army of the 
Potomac aw^y; we have such operations which may call 
him away, at least in part. While he remains intact I do 
not think we should take the disadvantage of attacking him 
in his intrenchments ; but we should continually harass and 

278 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

menace him, so that he shall have no leisure nor safety in 
sending away detachments. If he weakens himself, then 
pitch into him. 

[Letter to General Grant after the surrender of Vicksburg, 
Washington, 13 July 1863.] 

My dear General: I do not remember that you and I 
ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowl- 
edgment for the almost inestimable service you have done 
the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first 
reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do 
what you finally did — march the troops across the neck, run 
the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I 
never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew 
better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like 
could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, 
Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the 
river and join General Banks, and when you turned north- 
ward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I 
now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you 
were right and I was wrong. 

[Letter to General Meade after the battle of Gettysburg, 
Washington, 14 July 1863. Never signed or sent.] 

I have just seen your despatch to General Halleck, ask- 
ing to be relieved of your command because of a supposed 
censure of mine, I am very, very grateful to you for the 
magnificent success you gave the cause of the country at 
Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be the author of the 
slightest pain to you. But I was in such deep distress 
myself that I could not restrain some expression of it. I 
have been oppressed nearly ever since the battles of Gettys- 

279 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

burg by what appeared to be evidences that yourself and 
General Couch and General Smith were not seeking a col- 
lision with the enemy, but were trying to get him across 
the river without another battle. What these evidences 
were, if you please, I hope to tell you at some time when 
we shall both feel better. The case, summarily stated, is 
this: You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg, and, 
of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. 
He retreated, and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly 
pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by 
slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least 
twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as 
many more raw ones within supporting distance, all in ad- 
dition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg, while 
it was not possible that he had received a single recruit, 
and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be 
built, and the enemy move away at his leisure without at- 
tacking him. And Couch and Smith ! The latter left Car- 
lisle in time, upon all ordinary calculation, to have aided 
you in the last battle at Gettysburg, but he did not arrive. 
At the end of more than ten days, I believe twelve, under 
constant urging, he reached Hagerstown from Carlisle, 
which is not an inch over flfty-five miles, if so much, and 
Couch's movement was very little different. 

Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate 
the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. 
He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon 
him would, in connection with our other late successes, have 
ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefi- 
nitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, 
how can you possibly do so south of the river, when you 
can take with you very few more than two thirds of the 
force you then had in hand.^ It would be unreasonable to 
expect, and I do not expect [that], you can now effect much, 

280 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed im- 
measurably because of it. 

I beg you will not consider this a prosecution or persecu- 
tion of yourself. As you had learned that I was dissatisfied, 
I have thought it best to kindly tell you why. 



[Letter to General O. O. Howard, Washington, 21 July 

1863.] 

Your letter of the 18th is received. I was deeply morti- 
fied by the escape of Lee across the Potomac, because the 
substantial destruction of his army would have ended the 
war, and because I believed such destruction was perfectly 
easy — believed that General Meade and his noble army had 
expended all the skill, and toil, and blood, up to the ripe 
harvest, and then let the crop go to waste. 

Perhaps my mortification was heightened because I had 
always believed — making my belief a hobby, possibly — 
that the main rebel army going north of the Potomac could 
never return, if well attended to; and because I was so 
greatly flattered in this belief by the operations at Gettys- 
burg. A few days having passed, I am now profoundly 
grateful for what was done, without criticism for what was 
not done. 

General Meade has my confidence, as a brave and skilful 
officer and a true man. 

[Telegram to General A. E. Burnside, Washington, 
27 July 1863.] 

Let me explain. In General Grant's first despatch after 
the fall of Vicksburg, he said, among other things, he would 
send the Ninth Corps to you. Thinking it would be pleas- 
ant to you, I asked the Secretary of War to telegraph you 

281 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

the news. For some reasons never mentioned to us by Gen- 
eral Grants they have not been sent_, though we have seen 
outside intimations that they took part in the expedition 
against Jackson. General Grant is a copious worker and 
iighter, but a very meager writer or telegrapher. No 
doubt he changed his purpose in regard to the Ninth Corps 
for some sufficient reason^ but has forgotten to notify us 
of it. 



[Letter to Moulton, Washington, 31 July 1863.] 

My dear Sir: There has been a good deal of complaint 
against you by your superior officers of the Provost- Mar- 
shal-General's Department, and your removal has been 
strongly urged on the ground of "persistent disobedience 
of orders and neglect of duty." Firmly convinced, as I 
am, of the patriotism of your motives, I am unwilling to 
do anything in your case which may seem unnecessarily 
harsh or at variance with the feelings of personal respect 
and esteem with which I have always regarded you. I con- 
sider your services in your district valuable, and should be 
sorry to lose them. It is unnecessary for me to state, how- 
ever, that when differences of opinion arise between officers 
of the government, the ranking officer must be obeyed. 
You of course recognize as clearly as I do the importance 
of this rule. I hope you will conclude to go on in your 
present position under the regulations of the department. 
I wish you would write to me, 

[Letter to Mrs. Lincoln, Washington, 8 August 1863.] 

My dear Wife: All as well as usual, and no particular 
trouble anyway. I put the money into the Treasury at five 
per cent., with the privilege of withdrawing it any time 

282 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

upon thirty days' notice. I suppose you are glad to learn 
this. Tell dear Tad poor "Nanny Goat" is lost, and Mrs. 
Cuthbert and I are in distress about it. The day you left, 
Nanny was found resting herself and chewing her little 
cud on the middle of Tad's bed ; but now she 's gone ! The 
gardener kept complaining that she destroyed the flowers, 
till it was concluded to bring her down to the White House. 
This was done, and the second day she had disappeared 
and has not been heard of since. This is the last we know 
of poor "Nanny." 

[Letter to James H. Hackett, Washington, 17 August 

1863.] 

My dear Sir: Months ago I should have acknowledged 
the receipt of your book and accompanying kind note ; and 
I now have to beg your pardon for not having done so. 

For one of my age I have seen very little of the drama. 
The first presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, 
last winter or spring. Perhaps the best compliment I can 
pay is to say, as I truly can, I am very anxious to see it 
again. Some of Shakespeare's plays I have never read; 
while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any 
unprofessional reader. Among the latter are "Lear," 
"Richard IH.," "Henry VIII.," "Hamlet," and especially 
"Macbeth." I think nothing equals "Macbeth." It is 
wonderful. 

Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the 
soliloquy in "Hamlet" commencing "Oh, my offense is 
rank," surpasses that commencing "To be or not to be." 
But pardon this small attempt at criticism. I should like 
to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard III. 
Will you not soon visit Washington again? If you do, 
please call and let me make your personal acquaintance. 

283 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to J. C. Conkling, Washington, 26 August 1863.] 

My dear Sir: Your letter inviting me to attend a mass- 
meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the 
capital of Illinois on the 3d day of September, has been 
received. It would be very agreeable to me to thus meet 
my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be 
absent from here so long as a visit there would require. 

The meeting is to be of all those who maintain uncondi- 
tional devotion to the Union ; and I am sure my old political 
friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's 
gratitude to those and other noble men whom no partizan 
malice or partizan hope can make false to the nation's life. 

There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such 
I would say: You desire peace, and you blame me that we 
do not have it. But how can we attain it.'* There are but 
three conceivable ways: First, to suppress the rebellion 
by force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for 
it.^ If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are not for 
it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. 
Are you for it.^ If you are, you should say so plainly. If 
you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only 
remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any 
compromise embracing the maintenance of the Union is 
now possible. All I learn leads to a directly opposite be- 
lief. The strength of the rebellion is its military, its army. 
That army dominates all the country and all the people 
within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or 
men within that range, in opposition to that army, is simply 
nothing for the present, because such man or men have no 
power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if 
one were made with them. 

To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the South and 

284 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

peace men of the North get together in convention, and 
frame and proclaim a compromise embracing a restoration 
of the Union. In what way can that compromise be used 
to keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania? Meade's army 
can keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania, and, I think, can 
ultimately drive it out of existence. But no paper com- 
promise to which the controllers of Lee's army are not 
agreed can at all affect that army. In an effort at such 
compromise we should waste time which the enemy would 
improve to our disadvantage; and that would be all. A 
compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those 
who control the rebel army, or with the people first liberated 
from the domination of that army by the success of our own 
army. Now, allow me to assure you that no word or inti- 
mation from that rebel army, or from any of the men con- 
trolling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever 
come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinua- 
tions to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. And 
I promise you that if any such proposition shall hereafter 
come, it shall not be rejected and kept a secret froni you. 
I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, 
according to the bond of service — the United States Con- 
stitution — and that, as such, I am responsible to them. 

But to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the 
negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion be- 
tween you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish 
that all men could be free, while I suppose you do not. 
Yet, I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure 
which is not consistent with even your view, provided you 
are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation, 
to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy 
negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy ne- 
groes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxa- 
tion to save the Union exclusively by other means. 

285 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

You dislike the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps 
would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I 
think differently. I think the Constitution invests its com- 
mander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The 
most that can be said — if so much — is that slaves are prop- 
erty. Is there — has there ever been — any question that by 
the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may 
be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever 
taking it helps us, or hurts the enemy? Armies, the world, 
over, destroy enemies' property when they cannot use it; 
and even destroy their own to keep it from the enemy. 
Civilized belligerents do all in their power to help them- 
selves or hurt the enemy, except a few things regarded as 
barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions are the mas- 
sacre of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and 
female. 

But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not 
valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is 
valid, it cannot be retracted any more than the dead can 
be brought to life. Some of you profess to think its re- 
traction would operate favorably for the Union. Why bet- 
ter after the retraction than before the issue? There was 
more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebel- 
lion before the proclamation issued; the last one hundred 
days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was 
coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their 
allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably 
for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. I 
know, as fully as one can know the opinions of others, that 
some of the commanders of our armies in the field, who 
have given us our most important successes, believe the 
emancipation policy and the use of the colored troops con- 
stitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion, and that 
at least one of these important successes could not have 

286 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

been achieved when it w.is but for the aid of black soldiers. 
Among the commanders holding tliese views are some who 
have never had any affinity with what is called Abolitionism, 
or with Republican party politics, but who hold them purely 
as military opinions. I submit these opinions as being en- 
titled to some weight against the objections often urged 
that emancipation and arming the blacks are unwise as 
military measures, and were not adopted as such in good 
faith. 

You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of 
them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight 
you, then, exclusively, to save the Union. I issued the 
proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. 
Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the 
Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be 
an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to 
free negroes. 

I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to what- 
ever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to 
that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. 
Do you think differently ? I thought that whatever negroes 
can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for 
white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear 
otherwise to you.^* But negroes, like other people, act upon 
motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will 
do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they 
must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise 
of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept. 

The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes 
unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it. 
Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met 
New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their 
way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors 
than one, also lent a hand. On the spot, their part of the 

287 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a 
great national one, and let none be banned who bore an hon- 
orable part in it. And while those who have cleared the 
great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is 
hard to say that anything lias been more bravely and well 
done than at Antietam,, Murfreeforo', Gettysburg, and on 
many fields of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet 
be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been 
present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the 
rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and 
wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and 
made their tracks. Thanks to all: for the great republic 
— for the principle it lives by and keeps alive — for man's 
vast future — thanks to all. 

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it 
will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be 
worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have 
been proved that among free men there can be no success- 
ful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who 
take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the 
cost. And then there will be some black men who can re- 
member that with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and 
steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped man- 
kind on to this great consummation, while I fear there will 
be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant 
heart and deceitful speech they strove to hinder it. 

Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. 
Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, 
never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will 
give us the rightful result. 



288 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[From a letter to J. H. Haekett^ Washington, 2 Novem- 
ber 1863.] 

My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in print ; 
yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper com- 
ments upon it. Those comments constitute a fair specimen 
of what has occurred to me through life. I have endured 
a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have 
received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridi- 
cule. I am used to it. 



[Note to Secretary Stanton, Washington, 11 November 

1863.] 

Dear Sir: I personally wish Jacob Freese, of New Jer- 
sey, to be appointed colonel for a colored regiment, and 
this regardless of whether he can tell the exact shade of 
Julius Caesar's hair. 



[Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg national 
cemetery, 19 November 1863.] 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- 
cated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field 
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their 
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 
proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot 

289 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated 
it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world 
will little note nor long remember what we say here, but 
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the 
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly ad- 
vanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
task remaining before us — that from these honored dead 
we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave 
the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly re- 
solve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and 
that government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth. 



[From the annual message to congress, 8 December 1863.] 

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, 
full one hundred thousand are now in the United States 
military service, about one half of which number actually 
bear arms in the ranks; thus giving the double advantage 
of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause, and sup- 
plying the places which otherwise must be filled with so 
many white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they 
are not as good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection, 
or tendency to violence or cruelty, has marked the measures 
of emancipation and arming the blacks. These measures 
have been much discussed in foreign countries, and contem- 
porary with such discussion the tone of public sentiment 
there is much improved. At home the same measures have 
been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced, 
and the annual elections following are highly encouraging 
to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through 

290 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

this great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The 
crisis which threatened to divide the friends of the Union 
is past. 

[Indorsement on letter from Governor Hoadley of Ohio 
regarding the shooting of a deserter^ 7 January 1864.] 

The case of Andrews is really a very bad one^ as appears 
by the record already before me. Yet before receiving this 
I had ordered his punishment commuted to imprisonment 
for during the war at hard labor, and had so telegraphed. 
I did this, not on any merit in the case, but because I am 
trying to evade the butchering business lately. 

[Letter to Secretary Stanton, Washington, 1 March 1864.] 

My dear Sir: A poor widow, by the name of Baird, has 
a son in the army, that for some offense has been sentenced 
to serve a long time without pay, or at most with very little 
pay. I do not like this punishment of withholding pay 
— it falls so very hard upon poor families. After he had 
been serving in this way for several months, at the tearful 
aj3peal of the poor mother, I made a direction that he be 
allowed to enlist for a new term, on the same conditions 
as others. She now comes, and says she cannot get it acted 
upon. Please do it. 

[Letter of Governor Michael Hahn, Washington, 13 March 

1864.] 

My dear Sir: I congratulate you on having fixed your 
name in history as the first free-State governor of Loui- 
siana. Now you are about to have a convention, which, 
among other things, will probably define the elective fran- 

291 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

chise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, 
whether some of the colored people may not be let in — as, 
for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who 
have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably 
help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of lib- 
erty within the family of freedom. But this is only a sug- 
gestion, not to the public, but to you alone. 



[Remarks on closing a sanitary fair at Washington, 
18 March 1864.] 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I appear to say but a word. This 
extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily 
upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the 
soldier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he 
give for his life ; and while all contribute of their substance, 
the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in 
his country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the 
soldier. ' 

In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments 
have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in 
former wars ; and amongst these manifestations nothing has 
been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suf- 
fering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents in 
these fairs are the women of America. 

I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy; 
I have never studied the art of paying compliments to 
women; but I must say, that if all that has been said by 
orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise 
of women were applied to the women of America, it would 
not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I 
will close by saying, God bless the women of America. 



292 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to A. G. Hodges, Washington, 4 April 1864.] 

My dear Sir: You ask me to put in writing the substance 
of what I verbally said the other day in your presence, to 
Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as 
follows : 

"I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, 
nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so 
think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the 
presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act 
officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the 
oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. 
1 could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was 
it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and 
break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that 
in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me 
to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on 
the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this 
many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this 
day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my 
abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did under- 
stand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution 
to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of pre- 
serving, by every indispensable means, that government — 
tliat nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. 
Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Con- 
stitution } By general law, life and limb must be protected, 
yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a 
life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that meas- 
ures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by be- 
coming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitu- 
tion through the preservation of the nation. Right or 

293 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

wrongs I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could 
not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried 
to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or any 
minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, 
country, and Constitution all together. When, early in the 
war. General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I 
forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 
necessity. When, a little later. General Cameron, then Sec- 
retary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I ob- 
jected because I did not yet think it an indispensable neces- 
sity. When, still later. General Hunter attempted military 
emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think 
the indispensable necessity had come. When in March and 
May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals 
to the border States to favor compensated emancipation, I 
believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipa- 
tion and arming the blacks would come unless averted by 
that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, 
in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either 
surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of 
laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the 
latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss; 
but of this, I was not entirely confident. More than a year 
of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, 
none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white mil- 
itary force — no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the 
contrary it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty 
thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are pal- 
pable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. 
We have the men; and we could not have had them without 
the measure. 

"And now let any Union man who complains of the meas- 
ure test himself by writing down in one line that he is for 
subduing the rebellion by force of arms; and in the next. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men 
from the Union side, and placing them where they would 
be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his 
case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth." 
I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. 
In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own 
sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess 
plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end 
of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what 
either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone 
can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God 
now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that 
we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay 
fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history 
will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice 
and goodness of God. 

[Letter to Mrs. Horace Mann, Washington, 5 April 1864.] 

Madam: The petition of persons under eighteen, praying 
that I would free all slave children, and the heading of 
which petition it appears you wrote, was handed me a few 
days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these little peo- 
ple I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just 
and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the 
power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that 
God has, and that, as it seems, he wills to do it. 

[From an address at a sanitary fair in Baltimore, 18 April 

1864.] 

The world has never had a good definition of the word 
liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in 
want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the 

295 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some 
the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases 
with himself, and the product of his labor ; while with others 
the same word may mean for some men to do as they please 
with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here 
are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called 
by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the 
things is, by the respective parties, called by two different 
and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny. 

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, 
for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, 
while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the de- 
stroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. 
Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a defi- 
nition of the word liberty ; and precisely the same difference 
prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the 
North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold 
the process by which thousands are daily passing from under 
the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, 
and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. 
Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been 
doing something to define liberty, and thanks to them that, 
in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary has been re- 
pudiated. 

It is not very becoming for one in my position to make 
speeches at great length; but there is another subject upon 
which I feel that I ought to say a word. 

A painful rumor — true, I fear — has reached us of the 
massacre by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end 
of Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hun- 
dred colored soldiers and white officers, who had just been 
overpowered by their assailants. There seems to be some 
anxiety in the public mind whether the government is doing 
its duty to the colored soldier, and to the service, at this 

296 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

point. At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the 
use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the 
change of purpose was wrought I will not now take time 
to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to 
turn that element of strength to account; and I am respon- 
sible for it to the American people, to the Christian world, 
to history, and in my final account to God. Having deter- 
mined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no way but to 
give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The 
difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically 
applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the government is 
indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in 
regard to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, 
or white officer commanding colored soldiers, has been mas- 
sacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, — 
believe it, I may say, — but we do not know it. To take 
the life of one of their prisoners on the assumption that they 
murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they do 
murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We 
are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; 
and such investigation will probably show conclusively how 
the truth is. If after all that has been said it shall turn 
out that there has been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will 
be almost safe to say there has been none, and will be none, 
elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of three hundred 
there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be 
conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution 
shall as surely come. It will be matter of grave considera- 
tion in what exact course to apply the retribution; but in 
the supposed case it must come. 



297 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Letter to General Grant, Washington, 30 April 1864.] 

Not expecting to see you again before the spring cam- 
paign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satis- 
faction with what you have done up to this time, so far as 
I understand it. The particulars of your plans I neither 
know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; 
and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints 
or restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any 
great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall 
be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape 
your attention than they would be mine. If there is any- 
thing wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail 
to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just 
cause, may God sustain you. 



[Reply to a Methodist delegation, 14 May 1864.] 

Gentlemen: In response to your address, allow me to at- 
test the accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the 
sentiments it expresses, and thank you in the nation's name 
for the sure promise it gives. 

Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the 
churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least 
appear invidious against any. Yet without this it may fairly 
be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less de- 
voted than the best, is by its greater numbers the most im- 
portant of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist 
Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the 
hospital, and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless 
the Methodist Church. Bless all the churches, and blessed 
be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches. 



298 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to Dr. Ide and others^ Washington, 30 May 1864.] 

In response to the preamble and resolutions of the Ameri- 
can Baptist Home Mission Society, which you did me the 
honor to present, I can only thank you for thus adding to 
the effective and almost unanimous support which the Chris- 
tian communities are so zealously giving to the country and 
to liberty. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how it could 
be otherwise with any one professing Christianity, or even 
having ordinary perceptions of right and wrong. To read 
in the Bible, as the word of God himself, that "In the sweat 
of thy face shalt thou eat bread," and to preach therefrom 
that, "In the sweat of other men's faces shalt thou eat 
bread," to my mind can scarcely be reconciled with honest 
sincerity. When brought to my final reckoning, may I have 
to answer for robbing no man of his goods; yet more tol- 
erable even this, than for robbing one of himself and all that 
was his. When, a year or two ago, those professedly holy 
men of the South met in the semblance of prayer and devo- 
tion, and, in the name of Him who said, "As ye would all 
men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," appealed 
to the Christian world to aid them in doing to a whole race 
of men as they would have no man do unto themselves, to my 
thinking they contemned and insulted God and his church 
far more than did Satan when he tempted the Saviour with 
the kingdoms of the earth. The devil's attempt was no more 
false, and far less hypocritical. But let me forbear, remem- 
bering it is also written, "Judge not lest ye be judged." 



299 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Reply to a delegation from the national union league 
congratulating Lincoln on his renomination, 9 June 
1864.] 

Gentlemen: I can only say in response to the kind re- 
marks of your chairman^ as I suppose, that I am very grate- 
ful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded to 
me both by the convention and by the National League. I 
am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is 
in this, and yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but 
a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal 
compliment. That really the convention and the Union 
League assembled with a higher view — that of taking care 
of the interests of the country for the present and the great 
future — and that the part I am entitled to appropriate as 
a compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as 
being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that 
I am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place 
which I have occupied for the last three years. But I do 
not allow myself to suppose that either the convention or 
the League have concluded to decide that I am either the 
greatest or best man in America, but rather they have con- 
cluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing the 
river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor a 
horse that they might not make a botch of it in trying to 
swap. 



[From a speech at a sanitary fair, Philadelphia, 16 June 

1864.] 

It is a pertinent question, often asked in the mind pri- 
vately, and from one to the other, when is the war to end? 
Surely I feel as deep an interest in this question as any 

SOO 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

other can ; but I do not wish to name a day, a month, or a 
year, when it is to end. I do not wish to run any risk of 
seeing the time come without our being ready for the end, 
for fear of disappointment because the time had come and 
not the end. We accepted this war for an object, a worthy 
object, and the war will end when that object is attained. 
Under God, I hope it never will end until that time. Speak- 
ing of the present campaign. General Grant is reported to 
have said, "I am going through on this line if it takes all 
summer." This war has taken three years; it was begun 
or accepted upon the line of restoring the national authority 
over the whole national domain, and for the American peo- 
ple, as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I say we 
are going through on this line if it takes three years more. 
My friends, I did not know but that I might be called 
upon to say a few words before I got away from here, but 
I did not know it was coming just here. I have never been 
in the habit of making predictions in regard to the war, but 
I am almost tem^pted to make one. If I were to hazard it, 
it is this : That Grant is this evening, with General Meade 
and General Hancock, and the brave officers and soldiers 
with him, in a position from whence he will never be dis- 
lodged until Richmond is taken ; and I have but one single 
proposition to put now, and perhaps I can best put it in 
the form of an interrogative. If I shall discover that Gen- 
eral Grant and the noble officers and men under him can 
be greatly facilitated in their work by a sudden pouring 
forward of men and assistance, will you give them to me? 
Are you ready to march? [Cries of "Yes."] Then I say. 
Stand ready, for I am watching for the chance. I thank 
you, gentlemen. 



301 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

[Memorandum read to the cabinet 14 July 1864.] 

I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and 
when to remove any of you from his position. It would 
greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring to pro- 
cure another's removal^ or in any way to prejudice him be- 
fore the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me, 
and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that 
on this subject no remark be made nor question asked by 
any of you, here or elsewhere, now or hereafter. 

[Cipher telegram to General Grant, Washington, 3 August 

1864.] 

I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want 
Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field, with 
instructions to put himself south of the enemy, and follow 
him to the death. Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops 
go also." This, I think, is exactly right as to how our 
forces should move ; but please look over the despatches you 
may have received from here, ever since you made that order, 
and discover, if you can, that there is any idea in the head 
of any one here of "putting our army south of the enemy/' 
or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I re- 
peat to you, it will neither be done nor attempted, unless 
you watch it every day and hour, and force it. 

[Telegram to General Grant, Washington, 17 August 

1864.] 

I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to 
break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold 
on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as 
possible. 

302 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Unfinished draft of letter to C. D. Robinson^ Washington^ 
17 August 1864-.] 

It is true^ as you remind rae^ that in the Greeley letter 
of 1862 I said: "If I could save the Union without freeing 
any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing 
some and leaving others alone I would also do that." I 
continued in the same letter as follows : "What I do about 
slavery and the colored race^ I do because I believe it helps 
to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because 
I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall 
do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the 
cause; and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing 
more will help the cause." 

All this I said in the utmost sincerity; and I am as true 
to the whole of it now as when I first said it. When I after- 
ward proclaimed emancipation, and employed colored sol- 
diers, I only followed the declaration just quoted from the 
Greeley letter that "I shall do more whenever I shall believe 
doing more will help the cause." The way these measures 
were to help the cause was not to be by magic or miracles, 
but by inducing the colored people to come bodily over from 
the rebel side to ours. On this point, nearly a year ago, in 
a letter to Mr. Conkling, made public at once, I wrote as 
follows : "But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. 
Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing 
for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be 
prompted by the strongest motive — even the promise of free- 
dom. And the promise being made, must be kept." I am 
sure you will not, on due reflection, say that the promise be- 
ing made must be broken at the first opportunity. I am sure 
you would not desire me to say, or to leave an inference, that 

308 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

I am ready, whenever convenient, to j oin in reenslaving those 
who shall have served us in consideration of our promise. 
As matter of morals, could such treachery by any possibil- 
ity escape the curses of heaven, or of any good man? As 
matter of policy, to announce such a purpose would ruin 
the Union cause itself. All recruiting of colored men would 
instantly cease, and all colored men now in our service would 
instantly desert us. And rightfully, too. Why should they 
give their lives for us, with full notice of our purpose to 
betray them? Drive back to the support of the rebellion 
the physical force which the colored people now give and 
promise us, and neither the present, nor any coming, ad- 
ministration can save the Union. Take from us and give 
to the enemy the hundred and thirty, forty, or fifty thou- 
sand colored persons now serving us as soldiers, seamen, 
and laborers, and we cannot longer maintain the contest. 
The party who could elect a President on a War and Slavery 
Restoration platform would, of necessity, lose the colored 
force; and that force being lost, would be as powerless to 
save the Union as to do any other impossible thing. 

It is not a question of sentiment or taste, but one of phys- 
ical force, which may be measured and estimated, as horse- 
power and steam-power are measured and estimated. And, 
by measurement, it is more than we can lose and live. Nor 
can we, by discarding it, get a white force in place of it. 
There is a witness in every white man's bosom that he would 
rather go to the war having the negro to help him than to 
help the enemy against him. It is not the giving of one 
class for another — it is simply giving a large force to the 
enemy for nothing in return. In addition to what I have 
said, allow me to remind you that no one, having control 
of the rebel armies, or, in fact, having any influence what- 
ever in the rebellion, has offered, or intimated, a willingness 
to a restoration of the Union, in any event, or on any con- 

304. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

dition whatever. Let it be constantly borne in mind that 
no such offer has been made or intimated. Shall we be weak 
enougii to allow the enemy to distract us with an abstract 
question which he himself refuses to present as a practical 
one.^ In the Conkling letter before mentioned^ I said: 
"Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the 
Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an 
apt time then to declare that you will not fight to free 
negroes." I repeat this now. If Jefferson Davis wishes for. 
himself, or for the benefit of his friends at the North, to 
know what I would do if he were to offer peace and reunion, 
saying nothing about slavery, let him try me. 

[From an address to the l66th Ohio regiment, 22 August 

1864.] 

I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say any- 
thing to soldiers, to impress upon them, in a few brief re- 
marks, the importance of success in this contest. It is not 
merely for to-day, but for all time to come, that we should 
perpetuate for our children's children that great and free 
government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg 
you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. 
I happen, temporarily, to occupy this White House. I am 
a living witness that any one of your children may look to 
come here as my father's child has. It is in order that 
each one of you may have, through this free government 
which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for 
your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; that you may 
all have equal privileges in the race of life, with ail its de- 
sirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should 
be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright — not only 
for one, but for two or three years. The nation is worth 
fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. 

305 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 



[Memorandum, Washington, 23 August 1864.] 

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly- 
probable that this administration will not be reelected. 
Then it will be mj^ duty to so cooperate with the President- 
elect as to save the Union between the election and the in- 
auguration; as he will have secured his election on such 
ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward. 



[Letter to Eliza P. Gurney, Washington, 4> September 

1864.] 

My esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten — probably 
never shall forget — the very impressive occasion when your- 
self and friends visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years 
ago. Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, 
ever been forgotten. In all it has been your purpose to 
strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to 
the good Christian people of the country for their constant 
prayers and consolations; and to no one of them more than 
to yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, 
and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to ac- 
curately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy 
termination of this terrible war long before this; but God 
knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowl- 
edge his wisdom, and our own error therein. Meanwhile we 
must work earnestly in the best lights he gives us, trusting 
that so working still conduces to the great ends he ordains. 
Surely he intends some great good to follow this mighty 
convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could 
stay. Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having, 
a very great trial. On principle and faith opposed to both 
war and oppression, they can only practically ojjpose op- 

306 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pression by war. In this hard dilemma some have chosen 
one horn^ and some the other. For those appealing to me 
on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best 
I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to 
the law. That you believe this I doubt not; and, believing 
it, I shall still receive for our country and myself your ear- 
nest prayers to our Father in heaven. 

[Telegram to General Grant, Washington, 29 September 

1864.] 

I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm 
any way, for me to say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends 
reinforcements to Early, and thus enables him to turn upon 
Sheridan. 

[Response to a serenade 9 November 1864.] 

Friends and Fellow-citizens: Even before I had been in- 
formed by you that this compliment was paid me by loyal 
citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly to me, I had inferred that 
you were of that portion of my countrymen who think that 
the best interests of the nation are to be subserved by the 
support of the present administration. I do not pretend to 
say that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and 
loyalty of the country, but I do Believe, and I trust without 
personal interest, that the welfare of the country does re- 
quire that such support and indorsement should be given. 

I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's 
work, if it be as you assume, and as now seems probable, 
will be to the lasting advantage, if not to the very salvation, 
of the country. I cannot at this hour say what has been 
the result of the election. But, whatever it may be, I have 
no desire to modify this opinion: that all who have labored 

307 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

to-day in behalf of the Union have wrought for the best 
interests of the country and the world; not only for the 
present^ but for all future ages. 

I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; 
but^ while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence 
in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any 
taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of 
any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph 
over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this 
evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free govern- 
ment and the rights of humanity. 



[Letter to Mrs. Bixby, Washington, 21 November 1864.] 

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War 
Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Mas- 
sachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died 
gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruit- 
less must be any words of mine which should attempt to 
beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But 
I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that 
may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to 
save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the 
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cher- 
ished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride 
that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the 
altar of freedom. 

[From the annual message to congress, 6 December 1864.] 

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this 
country is derived through our popular elections. Judging 
by the recent canvass and its result, the purpose of the people 
within the loyal States to maintain the integrity of the 

308 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Union, was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than 
now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with 
which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls 
give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who sup- 
ported the Union ticket, so called, but a great majority of 
the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to entertain, 
and to be actuated by, the same purpose. It is an unanswer- 
able argument to this effect, that no candidate for any office 
whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek votes on the 
avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There has 
been much impugning of motives, and much heated contro- 
versy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing 
the Union cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no 
Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge 
that there is no diversity among the people. In affording 
the people the fair opportunity of showing one to another 
and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, 
the election has been of vast value to the national cause. 

The election has exhibited another fact, not less valuable 
to be known — the fact that we do not approach exhaustion 
in the most important branch of national resources — that of 
living men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the war 
has filled so many graves, and carried mourning to so many 
hearts, it is some relief to know that compared with the sur- 
viving, the fallen have been so few. While corps, and di- 
visions, and brigades, and regiments have formed, and 
fought, and dwindled, and gone out of existence, a great 
majority of the men who composed them are still living. 
The same is true of the naval service. The election returnS^ 
prove this. So many voters could not else be found. The 
States regularly holding elections, both now and four years 
ago — to wit: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, 
Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jer- 

309 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

sey. New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — cast 3,982,011 
votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then; showing an aggre- 
gate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast 
now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States 
did not vote in I860; thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,- 
773, and the net increase during the three years and a half 
of war, to 145,551. A table is appended, showing partic- 
ulars. To this again should be added the number of all 
soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, 
who by the laws of those States could not vote away from 
their homes, and which number cannot be less than 90,000. 
Nor yet is this all. The number in organized Territories is 
triple now what it was four years ago, while thousands, white 
and black, join us as the national arms press back the insur- 
gent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and negatively, 
by the election. 

It is not material to inquire how the increase has been 
produced, or to show that it would have been greater but 
for the war, which is probably true. The important fact 
remains demonstrated that we have more men now than we 
had when the war began; that we are not exhausted, nor 
in process of exhaustion ; that we are gaining strength, and 
may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This as 
to men. Material resources are now more complete and 
abundant than ever. 

The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we 
believe, inexhaustible. The public purpose to reestablish 
and maintain the national authority is unchanged, and, as 
we believe, unchangeable. The manner of continuing the 
effort remains to choose. On careful consideration of all the 
evidence accessible, it seems to me that no attempt at nego- 
tiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. 

310 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union 
— precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declara- 
tions to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does 
not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive 
ourselves. He cannot voluntarily re-accept the Union; we 
cannot voluntarily yield it. 

Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and in- 
flexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war, and 
decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten ; if the South- 
ern people fail him, he is beaten. Either way it would be 
the victory and defeat following war. What is true, how- 
ever, of him who heads the insurgent cause, is not necessarily 
true of those who follow. Although he cannot re-accept the 
Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire 
peace and reunion. The number of such may increase. 

They can at any moment have peace simply by laying 
down their arms and submitting to the national authority 
under the Constitution. After so much the government 
could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The 
loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions 
should remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means 
of legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating only 
in constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain, and 
other possible, questions are, and would be, beyond the ex- 
ecutive power to adjust; as, for instance, the admission of 
members into Congress, and whatever might require the ap- 
propriation of money. The executive power itself would be 
greatly diminished by the cessation of actual war. Par- 
dons and remissions of forfeitures, however, would still be 
within executive control. In what spirit and temper this 
control would be exercised, can be fairly judged of by the 
past. 

A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified 
terms^ were offered to all except certain designated classes, 

311 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

and it was at the same time made known that the excepted 
classes were still within contemplation of special clemency. 
During the year many availed themselves of the general 
provision^ and many more would only that the signs of bad 
faith in some led to such precautionary measures as rendered 
the practical process less easy and certain. During the same 
time^ also^ special pardons have been granted to individuals 
of the excepted classes, and no voluntary application has 
been denied. 

Thus, practically, the door has been for a full year open 
to all_, except such as were not in condition to make free 
choice — that is, such as were in custody or under constraint. 
It is still so open to all; but the time may come — probably 
will come — when public duty shall demand that it be closed ; 
and that in lieu more rigorous measures than heretofore 
shall be adopted. 

In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to 
the national authority on the part of the insurgents as the 
only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part 
of the government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to 
slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 
"while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt 
to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor 
shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the 
terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Con- 
gress." 

If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make 
it an executive duty to reenslave such persons, another, and 
not I, must be their instrument to perform it. 

In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to 
say, that the war will cease on the part of the government 
whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who 
began it. 



312 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to General W. T. Sherman, Washington, 26 Decem- 
ber 186i.] 

» 

My dear General Sherman: Many, many thanks for your 
Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah. 

When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic 
coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you 
were the better judge, and remembering that "nothing 
risked, nothing gained," I did not interfere. Now, the un- 
dertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I be- 
lieve none of us went further than to acquiesce. 

And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, 
as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only 
does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages ; 
but in showing to the world that your army could be divided, 
putting the stronger part to an important new service, and 
yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of 
the whole, — Hood's army, — it brings those who sat in dark- 
ness to see a great light. But what next? 

I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and 
yourself to decide. 

Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole 
army — officers and men. 

[Letter to General Grant, Washington, 19 January 1865.] 

Please read and answer this letter as though I was not 
President, but only a friend. My son, now in his twenty- 
second year, having graduated at Harvard, wishes to see 
something of the war before it ends. I do not wish to put 
him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which 
those who have already served long are better entitled and 
better qualified to hold. Could he, without embarrassment 

313 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

to you or detriment to the service, go into your military fam- 
ily with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, furnishing 
his necessary means? If no, say so without the least hesi- 
tation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that 
you shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. 



[Instructions to Secretary Seward in regard to peace con- 
ference, 31 January 1865.] 

You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to 
meet and informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, 
and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., 
of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have. You will 
make known to them that three things are indispensable — 
to wit: 

1. The restoration of the national authority throughout 
all the States. 

2. No receding by the executive of the United States on 
the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in 
the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding docu- 
ments. 

2. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, 
and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government. 

You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not 
inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed 
upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they 
may choose to say and report it to me. You will not assume 
to definitely consummate anything. 

[Telegram to General Grant, Washington, 1 February 

1865.] 

Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay 
your military movements or plans. 

3U 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

[Draft of message to congress, 5 February 1865. Never 

signed or sent.] 

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: I respectfully recommend that a joint resolution, sub- 
stantially as follows, be adopted so soon as practicable by 
your honorable bodies: "Resolved by the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States of America, in Con- 
gress assembled. That the President of the United States 
is hereby empowered, in his discretion, to pay $400,000,000 
to the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, 
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Mis- 
souri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, 
Virginia, and West Virginia, in the manner and on the con- 
ditions following, to wit: The payment to be made in six 
per cent, government bonds, and to be distributed among said 
States p?'0 rata on their respective slave populations as 
shown by the census of I860, and no part of said sum to 
be paid unless all resistance to the national authority shall 
be abandoned and cease, on or before the first day of April 
next; and upon such abandonment and ceasing of resistance 
one half of said sum to be paid in manner aforesaid, and 
the remaining half to be paid only upon the amendment 
of the National Constitution recently proposed by Congress 
becoming valid law, on or before the first day of July next, 
by the action thereon of the requisite number of States." 

The adoption of such resolution is sought with a view to 
embody it, with other propositions, in a proclamation look- 
ing to peace and reunion. 

Whereas a joint resolution has been adopted by Congress, 
in the words following, to wit : 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known, that 

S15 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

on the conditions therein stated, the power conferred on the 
executive in and by said joint resolution will be fully ex- 
ercised ; that war will cease and armies be reduced to a basis 
of peace; that all political offenses will be pardoned; that 
all property, except slaves, liable to confiscation or forfei- 
ture, will be released therefrom, except in cases of interven- 
ing interests of third parties; and that liberality will be 
recommended to Congress upon all points not lying within 
executive control. 

[^Indorsement.'] 

February 5, 1865. To-day these papers, which explain 
themselves, were drawn up and submitted to the cabinet and 
unanimously disapproved by them. 



[Reply to a committee of congress reporting the result of 
the electoral vote, 9 February 1865.] 

With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of 
their confidence; with a distrust of my own ability to per- 
form the duty required under the most favorable circum- 
stances, and now rendered doubly difficult by existing na- 
tional perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength of 
our free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people 
to the just principles upon which it is founded, and above 
all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of nations, 
I accept this trust. Be pleased to signify this to the respect- 
ive Houses of Congress. 

[Second inaugural address, Washington, 4 March 1865.] 

Fellow-countrymen : At this second appearing to take the 
oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an 
extended address than there was at the first. Then a state- 

316 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

merit, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed 
fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, 
during which public declarations have been constantly called 
forth on every point and phase of the great contest which 
still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the 
nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress 
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well 
known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reason- 
ably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope 
for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all 
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. 
All dreaded it — all sought to avert it. While the inaugural 
address was being delivered from this place, devoted alto- 
gether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents 
were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking 
to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. 
Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make 
war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would 
accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, 
not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in 
the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar 
and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, 
somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, 
and extend this interest was the object for which the insur- 
gents would rend the Union, even by war ; while the govern- 
ment claimed no right to do more than to restrict the terri- 
torial enlargement of it. 

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated 
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even be- 
fore, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an 
easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astound- 

317 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

ing. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God ; 
and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem 
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assist- 
ance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The 
prayers of both could not be answered — ^that of neither has 
been answered fully. 

The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the 
world because of offenses ! for it must needs be that offenses 
come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." 
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those 
offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, 
but which, having continued through his appointed time, he 
now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and 
South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the 
offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from 
those divine attributes which the believers in a living God 
always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope — fervently do 
we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass 
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth 
piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of un- 
requited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the 
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must 
be said, **The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether." 

With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us 
strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the na- 
tion's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves, and with all nations. 



318 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



[Letter to Thurlow Weed, Washington, 15 March 1865.] 

Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on 
my little notification speech and on the recent inaugural 
address. I expect the latter to wear as well as — perhaps 
better than — anything I have produced; but I believe it is 
not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being 
shown that there has been a difference of purpose between 
the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, 
is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is 
a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever 
of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, 
I thought others might afford for me to tell it. 



[From an address to an Indiana regiment, 17 March 1865.] 

There are but few aspects of this great war on which I 
have not already expressed my views by speaking or writ- 
ing. There is one — the recent effort of "our erring breth- 
ren," sometimes so called, to employ the slaves in their 
armies. The great question with them has been, "Will the 
negro fight for them.^" They ought to know better than we, 
and doubtless do know better than we. I may incidentally 
remark, that having in my life Heard many arguments — or 
strings of words meant to pass for arguments — intended to 
show that the negro ought to be a slave — if he shall now 
really fight to keep himself a slave, it will be a far better 
argument why he should remain a slave than I have ever 
before heard. He, perhaps, ought to be a slave if he desires 
it ardently enough to fight for it. Or, if one out of four 
will, for his own freedom, fight to keep the other three in 
slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish meanness. I 
have always thought that all men should be free; but if 

319 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

any should be slaves^ it should be first those who desire it 
for themselves^ and secondly those who desire it for others. 
Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong 
impulse to see it tried on him personally. 



[Last public address, Washington, 11 April 1865.] 

We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of 
heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the 
surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a 
righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression can- 
not be restrained. In the midst of this, however. He from 
whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for 
a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly 
promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part give us 
the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must 
not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the 
front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of 
the good news to you ; but no part of the honor for plan or 
execution is mine. To General Grant, his skilful officers 
and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, 
but was not in reach to take active part. 

By these recent successes the reinauguration of the na- 
tional authority — reconstruction — which has had a large 
share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely 
upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Un- 
like a case of war between independent nations, there is no 
authorized organ for us to treat with — no one man has 
authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We 
simply must begin with and mold from disorganized and 
discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional em- 
barrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among our- 
selves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruc- 

320 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tion. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports 
of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that 
to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this 
precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am 
much censured for some supposed agency in setting up 
and seeking to sustain the new State government of 
Louisiana. 

In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, 
the public knows. In the annual message of December, 
1863, and in the accompanying proclamation, I presented a 
plan of reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, 
if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sus- 
tained by the executive government of the nation. I dis- 
tinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might 
possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that 
the executive claimed no right to say when or whether mem- 
bers should be admitted to seats in Congress from such 
States. This plan was in advance submitted to the then 
Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. 
One of them suggested that I should then and in that con- 
nection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the there- 
tofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I 
should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed 
people, and that I should omit the protest against my own 
power in regard to the admission of members to Congress. 
But even he approved every part and parcel of the plan 
which has since been employed or touched by the action of 
Louisiana. 

The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation 
for the whole State, practically applies the proclamation to 
the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprentice- 
ship for freed people, and it is silent, as it could not well 
be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. 
So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cab- 
SSI 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

inet fully approved the plan. The message went to Con- 
gress^ and I received many commendations of the plan, 
written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from 
any professed emancipationist came to my knowledge until 
after the news reached Washington that the people of 
Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From 
about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different per- 
sons supposed to be interested [in] seeking a reconstruc- 
tion of a State government for Louisiana. When the mes- 
sage of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New 
Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that 
the people, with his military cooperation, would reconstruct 
substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of 
them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. 
Such has been my only agency in getting up the Louisiana 
government. 

As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. 
But as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall 
treat this as a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall 
be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public inter- 
est; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been 
shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, 
in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not 
seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the 
seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It 
would perhaps add astonishment to his regret were he to 
learn that since I have found professed Union men en- 
deavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne 
any public expression upon it. As appears to me, that ques- 
tion has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, 
and that any discussion of it, while it thus remains prac- 
tically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mis- 
chievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it 
may hereafter become^ that question is bad as the basis of 

322 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a merely per- 
nicious abstraction. 

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out 
of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that 
the sole object of the government, civil and military, in re- 
gard to those States is to again get them into that proper 
practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, 
but in fact easier^ to do this without deciding or even con- 
sidering whether these States have ever been out of the 
Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, 
it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been 
abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to re- 
storing the proper practical relations between these States 
and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge 
his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the 
States from without into the Union, or only gave them 
proper assistance, they never having been out of it. The 
amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Loui- 
siana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if 
it contained 50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of 
only about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to 
some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored 
man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred 
on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause 
as soldiers. 

Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana govern- 
ment, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The ques- 
tion is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to im- 
prove it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be 
brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner 
by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? 
Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State 
of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed 
to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, 

323 



LETTERS AND ADDRESSES 

organized a State government, adopted a free-State consti- 
tution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black 
and white, and empowering the legislature to confer the 
elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature 
has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment re- 
cently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout 
the nation. These 12^000 persons are thus fully committed 
to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State — com- 
mitted to the very things, and nearly all the things, the na- 
tion wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its 
assistance to make good their committal. 

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to 
disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the 
white man : You are worthless or worse ; we will neither help 
you, nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say: This 
cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your 
lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances 
of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some 
vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this course, 
discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any 
tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations 
with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, 
on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new govern- 
ment of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. 
We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 
to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for 
it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it 
to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all 
united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and 
daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective 
franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already 
advanced steps toward it than by running backward over 
them.^ Concede that the new government of Louisiana is 
only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we 

324 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by 
smashing it. 

Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject one vote in 
favor of the proposed amendment to the national Consti- 
tution. To meet this proposition it has been argued that 
no more than three-fourths of those States which have not 
attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the 
amendment. I do not commit myself against this further 
than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, 
and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification 
by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned 
and unquestionable. I repeat tlie question: Can Louisiana 
be brought into proper practical relation with the Union 
sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State gov- 
ernment ? What has been said of Louisiana will apply gen- 
erally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities per- 
tain to each State, and such important and sudden changes 
occur in the same State, and withal so new and unprece- 
dented is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan 
can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such 
exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new 
entanglement. Important principles may and must be in- 
flexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it 
may be my duty to make some new announcement to the 
people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail 
to act when satisfied that action will be proper. 



S25 



LIFE OF LINCOLN 

[Autobiography given to J. W. Fell 20 December 1859-] 

I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin county, Ken- 
tucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undis- 
tinguished families — second families, perhaps I should say. 
My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of 
the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and 
others in Macon county, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, 
Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham county, Vir- 
ginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, where a year or two 
later he was killed by the Indians, not in battle, but by 
stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. 
His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from 
Berks county, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them 
with the New England family of the same name ended in 
nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names 
in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, 
Abraham, and the like. 

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years 
of age, and he grew up literally without education. He re- 
moved from Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, In- 
diana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about 
the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild re- 
gion, with many bears and other wild animals still in the 
woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so 
called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher 
beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' " to the rule of three. 
If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to 
sojourn in the neighborhood he was looked upon as a wizard. 
There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for educa- 

^ 327 



LIFE OF LINCOLN 

tion. Of course^ when I came of age I did not know much. 
Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of 
three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. 
The little advance I now have upon this store of education 
I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of 
necessity. 

I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was 
twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon coun- 
ty. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, 
now in Menard county, where I remained a year as a sort of 
clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk war, and I 
was elected a captain of volunteers, a success which gave 
me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the 
campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature the same year 
(1832), and was beaten — the only time I ever have been 
beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding bien- 
nial elections I was elected to the legislature. I was not a 
candidate afterward. During this legislative period I had 
studied law and removed to Springfield to practise it. In 
1846 I was once elected to the lower house of congress. 
Was not a candidate for reelection. From 1849 to 1854, 
both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever 
before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the 
Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was 
losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then 
is pretty well known. 

If any personal description of me is thought desirable 
it may be said I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; 
lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and 
eighty pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and 
gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected. 

In this little autobiographical sketch Lincoln covers the 

328 



LIFE OF LINCOLN 

facts of his egrly life; the letters and addresses with their 
annotations make unnecessary in this place any addition 
in regard to the later years. As to that strange character 
Lincoln's own words must speak, — it is to his expression of 
himself in his relations with his friends and his enemies that 
one must turn. The contents of this volume have been care- 
fully chosen to show every phase of his nature. Time which 
tempers all judgments has in the case of Lincoln been swift 
to bring the eulogies of this generation to follow the 
criticisms of his own. It was but natural that during a 
period of intense feeling different factions should emphasize 
different phases of one of the most complex characters in 
history. Now that the wounds of that time are almost 
healed and men and women are middle-aged who were born 
after Lincoln had passed to give an account of his great 
trust_, it is possible to see him as he was, — a man of deepest 
melancholy yet overflowing to coarseness with animal spirits, 
a man of the " plain people " with all their plainness in 
small things yet in great matters a model of high courtesy, 
sensitive to unpopularity yet ready to stand alone because 
he saw so clearly the goal before him, a shrewd politician 
yet an unselfish statesman, an uncompromising commander 
yet a friend tenderly considerate of all human weakness. 
In the stately simplicity of Lowell's tribute to the murdered 
president there is the note of prophecy: 

He knew to bide his time 

And can his fame abide. 
Still patient in his simple faith sublime, 

Till the wise years decide. 
Great captains with their guns and drums 

Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
But at last silence comes ; 

These all are gone, and, standing like a tower, 

329 



LIFE OF LINCOLN 

Our children shall behold his fame. 

The kindly, earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 

New birth of our new soil, the first American, 



330 



THE STORY OF THE BOOK 

The books and pamphlets in existence which bear on the 
life and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln form a collection 
so vast that the mere enumeration of their titles would go 
far towards filling a volume. Nine-tenths of these publica- 
tions are campaign documents and tributes called forth by 
his assassination. Mr. Andrew Boyd of Albany who pub- 
lished a Lincoln bibliography in 1870 owned a collection of 
404 funeral orations alone^ exclusive of poems and other 
tributes. From a gentleman in Chili^ from a missionary in 
Hayti, from a Jew in Wilna^ from innumerable sources and 
in a dozen languages these pamphlets poured. From Vienna 
came a play dealing with the dramatic incidents in the life 
of the dead president. And so one might go on indefinitely. 
More, probably^, has been written of Lincoln than of any 
man of his century. Napoleon excepted. 

Even the question of the speeches and the various forms 
in which they have been given to the public is too large to 
be properly treated here. The book-worm must turn to Mr. 
Boyd's bibliography for the best information in regard to 
works published prior to 1870; since then the volumes have 
been sufficiently few and important to find a place in the 
catalogue of any large library. 

Mr. Nicolay in making his exhaustive collection of Lin- 
coln material for the two volumes of the Century Co 's edi- 
tion of the Complete Works devoted years to research and 
verification. At an early date he began keeping scrap- 
books and from his appointment as private secretary to the 
president-elect he of course let nothing pass him. For the 
early letters he^ as well as every other biographer, was in- 
debted to Mr. Herndon for persistent efforts to bring to 

331 



\ 



THE STORY OF THE BOOK 

light anything connected with the president's youth and 
young manhood. Lincoln himself kept some record of his 
speeches, for side by side with his unselfish patriotism there 
dwelt no inconsiderable personal ambition. The political 
speeches in those days of the beginnings of the country law- 
yer's greatness had frequently a wide circulation in pamphlet 
form. Country newspapers were eager to adorn their pages 
with the rhetoric of the rising politician. A few manuscripts 
also are preserved. Mr. Nicolay carefully went over every 
step of the ground, searching old files of the Sangamo 
Journal and making his labor of love herculean. 

The first published volume of Lincoln's speeches con- 
tained the great debates. Follett, Foster and Co. of Colum- 
bus brought out an octavo volume of 268 pages in I860. 
Publishers in Boston, New York, Chicago and Detroit fol- 
lowed suit and the debates ran through two or three editions. 
A Springfield printer who had been asked by Lincoln to 
bring them out had considered that their interest too ephem- 
eral to warrant the venture. The Cooper institute speech 
in pamphlet form also received the widest publicity in I860 
and was translated in several languages including — of all 
tongues — Welsh. 

During Lincoln's presidency his letter to Conkling, to 
Greeley, some to McClellan, that which dealt with the Val- 
landigham case, extracts giving his opinions on slavery 
and so forth were sent out in pamphlet form by many 
printers. After his death these, with the farewell to Spring- 
field, the emancipation proclamation, the inaugurals, the 
Gettyburg address, the "favorite poem" and so on, were 
scattered broadcast. The first appearance of the Gettysburg 
address in book form was apparently when Little, Brown 
and Co. of Boston gave it a place in their edition of Edward 
Everett's oration at the same time and place. In New York 
Baker and Godwin rather patronizingly included it in their 

332 



THE STORY OF THE BOOK 

issue of Everett's speech, without giving to the page of im- 
mortal words the dignity of mention on the title page. 

Campaign lives of more or less hackneyed sort contained 
copious extracts from the speeches. Of the whole collection 
two only need be mentioned, and only one of these for its 
intrinsic value. William Dean Howells wrote a slight life 
of Lincoln in I860 and Follett, Foster and Co. of Columbus 
published it. In 1864 Henry Jarvis Raymond of the New 
York Times published a study of the administration of Lin- 
coln which is the first work of literary and critical value to 
deal with the subj ect. Most men stood too near the man and 
the mighty issues of the day to judge him properly as an 
orator. Mr. Raymond first strikes the note of appreciation. 
He remarks as the most evident characteristic of Lincoln's 
state papers a singular faculty for "putting things." "He 
has no pride of intellect/' continues Mr. Raymond, "not 
slightest desire for display, no thought or purpose but that 
of making everybody understand precisely what he means to 
say. It gives to his public papers a weight and influence 
with the mass of the people which no man of this country 
has ever before attained. And this is heightened by the at- 
mosphere of humor which seems to pervade his mind and 
which is just as natural to it and as attractive and softening 
a part of it as the smoky hues of Indian summer are of the 
charming season to which they belong." 

To-day Lincoln's position as a master of the English 
tongue in its strength and simplicity is unquestioned. The 
French Academy, Emerson, Lowell, Everett, Beecher, Inger- 
soll, great orators and critics of England and America are 
united on that point. No man of his century could state 
a proposition with more exactness and compactness. His 
clarity of expression, the consistent building up of his argu- 
ment, his brilliantly apt comparisons, his illuminating wit, 
his merciless pursuit of illogic in his opponents, his reserve 

S33 



THE STORY OF THE BOOK 

and his dignity would be remarkable in a mind highly trained 
and in this untaught son of the wilderness become phenom- 
enal. The Peoria address, the debates, the letters to Greeley, 
to McClellan, to Conkling, are models in their way. Equally 
noticeable in his instinct for words, his choice of the simple, 
the descriptive, the musical. The inaugurals, the Gettysburg 
address (ranked by Emerson as the peer of any of the utter- 
ances of man), the Springfield farewell, illustrate this side 
of his genius. 

But no criticism, no analysis, can give life to these ad- 
dresses as can the vision of the man who uttered them — of 
the towering, gaunt figure, ill-dressed, uncouth, yet glorified 
with the dignity of earnestness. Those who heard him say 
that he was often nervously awkward on rising to speak but 
soon forgot himself in his subject. He would toss back his 
head and show his figure, seemingly expanded beyond its 
lank proportions, at the extent of its gigantic height. He 
used his hands little but would sweep his arm through the air 
with an occasional splendid gesture. His rough dark face 
would shine and his grey eyes flash with eloquence or twinkle 
with humor. Competent judges rank him with Clay and 
Webster for force and magnetism. Such was Lincoln the 
orator. 



334. 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

5 First public address. In this contest Lincoln was not 
elected, but considering his youth (he was but twenty-three) 
and his brief residence at New Salem he made a good show- 
ing. This was the only occasion on which Lincoln was 
beaten by a direct vote of the people. Biographers com- 
ment on the simple, direct and rhythmic wording of this ad- 
dress which shows the chief characteristics of his later style. 

5 Letter to Sangamo Journal. In this election Lincoln 
stood second among the four successful candidates. He 
was now postmaster of New Salem and deputy surveyor of 
Sangamon county, had travelled more than most of his 
neighbors and was far better read. Two toasts of the year's 
political dinners were: "Abraham Lincoln: He has fulfilled 
the expectations of his friends and disappointed the hopes 
of his enemies" and "A. Lincoln: One of nature's noble- 
men." 

7 Address before young men's lyceum. Lincoln had 
been one of the organizers of this lyceum for mutual im- 
provement. 

18 Protest against slavery resolutions. The resolutions 
against which Lincoln and Stone protested avoided con- 
demnation of slavery as a system and were framed to placate 
pro-slavery sentiment. Abolitionist societies were "highly 
disapproved" and the right of congress to abolish slavery in 
the District of Columbia against the consent of the citizens 
was denied. It is worthy of note that in a time of intense 
excitement when changes of opinion were constant among the 
ablest' men Lincoln never altered his views on slavery as here 
expressed, always opposing the system but regarding slave 
holders as its victims and respecting their rights. W. E. 

335 



NOTES ON THE TEXT ^ 

Curtis^ in The True Abraham Lincoln^ writes : " This, I am 
confident_, is the first formal declaration against the system \ 
of slavery that was made in any legislative body in the 
United States, at least west of the Hudson River." 

21 Letter to Mrs. Brorvning. Miss Owens said to W. 
H. Herndon that she refused Lincoln because he was " de- 
ficient in those little links which go to make up the chain 
of a woman's happiness." Mrs. Browning had no idea that 
the letter was anything but one of Lincoln's grotesque in- 
ventions until many years after when she was about to give 
it for publication and Lincoln warned her that there was 
" too much truth for print " in his confession. 

27 Party politics in 18JfO. The seat of government in 
Illinois was removed in 1839 from Vandalia to Springfield 
largely through the efforts of Lincoln, and in the new capital 
there gathered a group of unusual men, Lincoln, Douglas, 
Baker, Calhoun, Stuart, Shields, Logan, Trumbull, Mc- 
Clernand, Browning, Treat, McDougall, Hardin and others 
destined to play prominent parts in the struggle that was 
drawing near. The Stuart to whom this letter is addressed 
was Lincoln's law partner. The two men ran together for 
the legislature in 1834, fought together in the Black Hawk 
war and formed a friendship that lasted through life. 
Stuart advised Lincoln to study law, helped him with books 
and made him his partner, an agreement which continued 
until 1841. 

28 Letter to W. G. Anderson. Lincoln always avoided 
quarrels and in later years he sent the following advice to 
a young officer condemned to be court-martialed for quarrel- 
ing: "No man resolved to make most of himself can spare 
time for personal contention. Still less can he aff'ord to 
take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his tem- 
per and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to 
which you can show no more than equal right and yield lesser 

336 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog 
than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even 
killing the dog vrould not cure the bite." 

28 Difficulty with Miss Todd. The letter to Stuart and 
the following correspondence with Joshua Speed are inter- 
esting in connection with the facts of Lincoln's life at that 
time. In Springfield he met Miss Mary Todd of Kentucky 
who was visiting her sister^ Mrs. Edwards, the wife of a 
member of the legislature. They became engaged but there 
were many disagreements and Lincoln grew depressed al- 
most to insanity. The marriage was set for the first of 
January 18 il but it did not take place. After the break- 
ing of the engagement Lincoln's melancholy grew profound 
and his correspondence during this period gives an idea of 
that black depression which at periods throughout his life 
took possession of him. 

29 Sold slaves. Although the slaves noticed on Lin- 
coln's return from his visit to his friend Speed's Kentucky 
home were cheerful, Lincoln had seen at the age of nineteen 
the reverse side of the picture. On returning from a trip to 
New Orleans he very generally expressed his indignation at 
the scenes in the slave market of that city and is quoted by 
his cousin, John Hanks, as declaring that there and then he 
conceived an undying horror of the system. 

30 Letter to Joshua Speed. Speed was for four years 
Lincoln's room-mate at Springfield and was always his con- 
siderate and consistent friend, the most intimate he ever 
knew. Speed surrendered this correspondence to Lincoln's 
biographer, W. H. Herndon, with a good deal of hesitancy 
and erased several names. The Speeds were a Kentucky 
family and Joshua's brother John was apjoointed by Lincoln 
attorney general of the United States in 1864<. 

33 Lincoln*s views on temperance. The feeling against 
intemperance which led Lincoln to join the Washingtonian 

337 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

temperance society of Springfield lasted throughout his life. 
Mr. Nicolay says that in the five years spent with the presi- 
dent at the White House he " never saw him take a glass 
of whiskey and never heard of his taking one." Colonel 
John Hay adds to this that he never saw him use tobacco. 
On the other hand his moderation towards drunkards some- 
times annoyed zealous reformers. The speech here quoted 
was not popular with some temperance people because of 
his observation that hard drinkers may be in heart and head 
the equals of their more sober brothers. When a committee 
called during the war to ask the president to abolish the use 
of liquor in the army adding that the recent defeats were 
undoubtedly the judgment of God for the drunkenness of 
the soldiers, Lincoln replied that this was a little unreasona- 
ble on the part of the Lord, since the southerners drank a 
great deal worse whiskey and a great deal more of it. With 
this remark he dismissed the committee. 

45 Duel with Shields. This duel with Shields, which 
never came off, has interest both sentimental and humorous. 
James Shields was an Irishman, small of stature but bellig- 
erent of spirit. He was one of Miss Todd's many admirers 
but this did not prevent the young lady, with one of her 
friends, from ridiculing him in a local paper. Shields in 
great anger demanded the name of the writer and Lincoln 
claimed the authorship of the objectionable lines. He may 
indeed have urged on the young women to the prank. 
Shields promptly challenged him. Lincoln had choice of 
weapons and chose broadswords as described. Considering 
the extreme disparity in their height and reach of arm the 
absurdity of this is evident. The little Irishman, nothing 
daunted, accepted the terms and the pair met. It is related 
that while they waited for the seconds to measure the ground 
Lincoln, with assumed absent mindedness, rose from the log 
on which he sat, drew his sword, felt its edge with his thumb, 

338 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

and pulling himself up to his full height of six feet four 
inches chopped off a twig at an almost incredible distance 
above his head_, watching Shields the while with a humorous 
twinkle in his eye. But his undersized antagonist did not 
withdraw until friends interfered and refused to let the 
farce go farther. James Shields afterwards served his 
country as senator from two states and rose to be a general 
in the Mexican war and the civil war. As for Lincoln the 
duel drew him and Miss Todd together again and their 
marriage followed 4 November 1842. The duel story was 
used against him politically and Lincoln grew sensitive about 
the subject. 

47 Letter to Martin Morris. At this time Lincoln was 
contesting the nomination for congress with E. D. Baker, 
"the Prince Rupert of battle and debate," whose eloquence 
had already won him fame in Illinois and was destined to 
give him national reputation. Neither Lincoln nor Baker 
received the nomination in 1843 for it went to a "dark 
horse," J. J. Hardin, but Baker served in congress from 
1848 to 1849, became Republican senator from Oregon in 
1861 and introduced Lincoln at his first inauguration. He 
was killed at Ball's Bluif 21 October 1861. 

47 Literary aspirations. Lincoln, in his log cabin home, 
read what books he had — "^sop's Fables," " Robinson 
Crusoe," " Pilgrim's Progress," a History of the United 
States and Weems' " Life of Washington." Later he laid 
his hands on Shakespeare and Burns and eagerly read them. 
Emerson has likened his quaint way of illustrating his points 
with little stories to the manner of iEsop; possibly his early 
reading had left this impress on his style. He had a 
taste for poetry of a rather morbid sort such as his favorite 
" Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud." He greatly 
enjoyed portions of Byron's works while on the other hand 
he delighted in Tom Hood and revelled in the work of 

339 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

'* Petroleum V. Nasby " (D. R. Locke). In the backwoods 
he had scribbled verse but it is not recorded that he wrote 
poetry after the attempts here given. Critics have laid 
stress on the musical quality of his style and R. W. Gilder 
gives as example of his " unconscious verse " the lines from 
the second inaugural which run: 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray 

That this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 

49 Wife and children. The second son referred to was 
christened Edward Baker; he died in 1850. Lincoln's other 
children were: Robert Todd born in 1843; William Wallace 
born in 1850, died at the White House in 1862; and Thomas 
born in 1853, died in 1871. Robert Lincoln was secretary 
of war under Presidents Garfield and Arthur and minister to 
England under Harrison; he has been a candidate for the 
nomination to the presidency. He is now (1903) living in 
Chicago where he is president of the Pullman company. 
Lincoln's wife survived him many years. She died in 
Springfield I6 July 1882. She seemed never fully to re- 
cover the shock of her husband's assassination and during 
the later years of her life, though her memory remained 
excellent and her powers of conversation unimpaired, she 
developed curious eccentricities. She never went into the 
sunlight but would sit in broad day in a darkened room 
lighted dimly by candles. She accumulated too a vast num- 
ber of gowns which she never wore or intended to wear and 
in other ways showed a mind deranged. 

50 Business letter to Herndon. W. H. He^ndon be- 
came Lincoln's law partner in 1845 and so continued through 
Lincoln's life. In later years he became the biographer of 
his famous associate. In reference to the latter's directions 
regarding the money it is interesting to note that at this 
time Lincoln was still paying off what he called his " na- 

340 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

tional debt " contracted fourteen years before during the 
partnershii3 of Lincoln and Berry in store-keeping. Berry 
drank himself to death shortly after their failure and the 
men to whom the store had been sold never paid the money, 
but Lincoln shouldered the debt, overwhelming to a penni- 
less young frontiersman, and eventually paid it off in spite 
of the fact that financial ethics were at that time and place 
rather loose. In this fashion he earned his sobriquet of 
" honest Abe " and various little anecdotes are told to show 
his scrupulous uprightness and almost exaggerated honesty. 
Lincoln was never a good business man. His life-long 
friend Judge Davis says of him that he apparently had no 
idea how to make money outside of his profession and never 
attempted to do so. 

52 Speech on Mexican war. The Mexican war, in which 
Lincoln found himself opposed to the president, arose out of 
the question whether the southern boundary of the newly 
annexed country of Texas was at the Nueces or the Rio 
Grande. In January 1846 President Polk had sent an ex- 
pedition under General Taylor to the Rio Grande and had 
there caused the erection of Fort Brown. The Mexicans 
affirmed this not to be Texan territory and an expedition 
was sent against the fort. Polk's message to congress set 
forth that Mexico " had shed American blood upon the 
American soil." Lincoln, then in his first congressional ses- 
sion, presented resolutions demanding to be told the " par- 
ticular spot " on which the blood of American citizens had 
been shed and claimed that the boundary question was so un- 
settled that the president's act in sending the Fort Brown 
expedition amounted to aggression. These " spot resolu- 
tions " were widely discussed. He held steadily to his posi- 
tion in spite of its unpopularity. 

57 A, H. Stephens. Alexander Hamilton Stephens of 
Georgia, whose oratory so moved Lincoln, played an im- 

341 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

portant part in later events. A brilliant orator^ he was a 
Whig member of congress from 1843 to 1859. When the 
dissatisfied southern states held their convention he opposed 
secession, but he threw in his lot with the Confederacy and 
became its vice president. The '* Logan " referred to was 
Stephen T. Logan, Lincoln's law partner from 1841 to 1845, 
and his warm friend and admirer as well as his able 
teacher. 

57 Letter to A. Williams. This letter to his henchman 
Williams is a good example of Lincoln's political shrewd- 
ness. The Browning referred to was Orville H. Browning, 
Lincoln's life-long friend. He was eager for the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves during his congressional career, which 
perhaps gives point to Lincoln's fear that his sympathies 
might run away with him in the case of Clay. Browning 
was secretary of the interior 1866-69. 

59 Second letter to Williams. " Barnburners " was the 
name given by the Conservative Democrats to the newly 
formed anti-slavery party calling themselves Free-soilers. 
The Locofocos were the " Reform Democrats" ; the " Na- 
tive Americans " were the precursors of the Know-nothings 
who later would have restricted the suffrage to native born 
Americans. 

60 Advice to Herndon. Lincoln's exhortation to Hern- 
don apart from its political and moral value throws a light 
on the position of middle-aged men in the early days of the 
Republic. Lincoln, writing in this character of " old man," 
was but thirty-eight years of age. Men were supposed to 
retire early and make way for the younger element. Ninian 
Edwards, Mrs. Lincoln's brother-in-law, when a candidate 
for the governorship of Illinois in 1826 found it necessary 
to apologise profusely for his advanced age although he was 
but fifty-one, and other instances are not wanting. 

64 Lewis Cass. Lewis Cass, Democratic candidate for 

342 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

the presidency against Taylor and here the victim of Lin- 
coln's raillery_, was born in 1782, served as brigadier general 
in the war of 1812, was governor of Michigan 1813-31, 
during which period he made valuable explorations of the 
Indian country, was secretary of war 1831-6, minister to 
France 1836-42 and senator from Michigan 1845-8. He 
was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination to 
the presidency; after being once nominated and defeated 
for that office he served as senator from Michigan 1849-57 
and as secretary of state 1857-60. It will be noted that 
this is practically a " stump speech," although delivered in 
congress, and presaged the enthusiasm with which Lincoln 
threw himself into the campaign for Taylor. 

68 Lincoln as a lawyer. Lincoln began to read law in 
an odd way. While he was " keeping store " during the 
ill-fated partnership with Berry, a man passing with a 
wagon offered for sale a barrel which he found much in his 
way. To oblige the man Lincoln bought the barrel for half 
a dollar. Some weeks after he turned it over to shake out 
some rubbish in the bottom and out fell a copy of Blackstone. 
Business was not flourishing then and there was plenty of 
time to read. After the failure of the store he still read 
and the story is told of an old man who saw, mounted on a 
wood pile, an ungainly figure coarsely dressed, almost gro- 
tesque, immersed in a book. " What are you reading?" 
asked the man. " I'm studying," replied Lincoln. " Study- 
ing what.^" queried the jDasser-by. " Law, sir." " Great 
God Almighty !" was all the old man could find to say. 

With the help of Stuart and more especially of Stephen 
Logan, Lincoln became a good lawyer. Logan's office has 
been called a nursery of statesmen for his pupils numbered 
four senators and three governors of states besides Lincoln. 
Lincoln's first appearance at court was made in October 
1836; his fee for this case was three dollars. Lincoln and 

343 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

Stuart made seldom more than ten dollars over each case. 
Judge Davis says: 

In all the elements that constitute the great lawyer he 
had few equals. . . . He seized the strong points of a : 
cause and presented them with clearness and compactness. 
. . . Generalities and platitudes had no charm for him. 
An unfailing vein of humor never deserted him and he was 
able to claim the attention of court and jury, when the cause 
was most uninteresting, by the appropriateness of his anec- 
dotes. His power of comparison was large and he rarely 
failed in a legal discussion to use that mode of reasoning. 
The framework of his mental and moral being was honesty, 
and a wrong cause was poorly defended by him. 

He never willingly defended anyone whom he did not con- 
sider innocent — which at least shows the quality of the man 
although it may somewhat detract from his professional 
ability. 

70 Letter to John Johnston. John Johnston was the 
son, by a former marriage, of Lincoln's stepmother. Nancy 
Hanks^ Lincoln's own mother, died when the boy was nine 
years old. Sally Bush Johnston, whom Thomas Lincoln 
took as his second wife_, was a woman of intelligence and 
sympathy who recognized the talents of the young Abraham 
and urged him forward as best she could. Lincoln had slight 
recollection of Nancy Hanks but the child had so grieved to 
see her put in her wilderness grave in a rough coffin of his 
father's making, without religious ceremony of any kind, 
that months afterward he managed to secure the services of 
a travelling preacher to deliver a funeral address over the 
grave. His nature was satisfied with the love and care of 
his stepmother, between whom and himself there was warm 
esteem. Mrs. Lincoln shortly before her death said: " I 
can truly say what scarcely one mother in one thousand can 
say, that Abraham Lincoln never gave me a cross word or 

344 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

look and never refused in fact or appearance to do anything 
I asked him. His mind and mine — what little I had — 
. eemed to run together." Just before leaving for Washing- 
ton for his first inauguration, Lincoln spent a day with his 
stepmother — the last time they met. As to John Johns- 
ton, he was a well meaning, if shiftless, fellow, but as 
Messrs. Nicolay and Hay write apropos of this correspond- 
ence "a volume of disquisition could not put more clearly be- 
fore the reader the difference between Abraham Lincoln and 
the common run of southern and western rural laborers." 

72 Letter to John Johnston. Five days after Lincoln 
wrote the letter of January 12 his father died. John Hanks, 
loquacious cousin of the Lincolns, gave it as his opinion 
that Lincoln "did not care very much" for his father. 
Thomas Lincoln seems certainly to have given his son little 
in the way either of example or encouragement. 

75 Speech at Peoria. With this speech Lincoln made 
himself a power in national politics. A Chicago editor 
likened him to Byron who awoke one morning to find himself 
famous. Lincoln had had little to do with politics since the 
expiration of his term in congress and his refusal of the 
proffered governorship of Oregon, but the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise again aroused him. This measure, 
which allowed slavery in Missouri but forbade it in all the 
territory west of Missouri or north of the line 36° 30', was 
held as the great safeguard against the spread of the " pe- 
culiar institution " of the south. Its repeal in 1854<, together 
with congressional insistence on the fugitive slave act, 
aroused public feeling to a degree unequalled perhaps even 
in the times of '76. Lincoln found himself again in opposi- 
tion to his old antagonist of Springfield, Stephen Douglas. 
There is good authority for the story that the " Democratic 
giant " was so amazed at the power of his rival that he 
sought him out privately and made an agreement that neither 

345 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

should speak again before election. The lives of Lincoln 
and Douglas are so connected that it is impossible fully to 
ajopreciate the career of the future president without a 
knowledge of his less successful rival. 

Stephen Arnold Douglas was fated continually to cross 
swords with Lincoln. They met in Springfield where^ so 
says tradition^ they were both suitors for Miss Todd. Doug- 
las was the conspicuous advocate in the state of Illinois of 
the principles opposed by Lincoln ; indeed " the little giant/' 
as the undersized man of great ability was called^ seemed 
everything that Lincoln was not — small, well formed, good 
to look at, quick in perceptions, but often short-sighted in 
affairs of state. Like his great antagonist, Douglas came 
of humble folk. He was born on a farm at Brandon, 
Vermont, 23 April 1813. In spite of early hardships he 
secured a fair education. He went to Illinois, a penniless 
young man, in 1833, opened a law office the next year and 
within twelve months was elected attorney general of the 
state, before he had reached the age of twenty-two. In 1835 
he resigned his office because he had been elected to the 
legislature. In 1837 he ran for congress to represent the 
most populous district in the country and was defeated by 
only five votes. He became secretary of state for Illinois 
in 1840 and judge of the supreme court in 1841. In 1843 he 
was elected to congress where he consistently advocated ter- 
ritorial expansion. As chairman of the territorial commit- 
tee he reported and carried through bills organizing the ter- 
ritories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washing- 
ton, Kansas and Nebraska, also bills granting statehood to 
Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota and Oregon. He 
advocated what he called " the great fundamental principle 
that every people ought to possess the right of framing and 
regulating their own internal concerns and domestic institu- 

346 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

tions in their own way." " These things/' he added, " are 
all confided by the Constitution to each state to decide for 
itself and I know of no reason why the same principle should 
not be extended to the territories." He favored the acquisi- 
tion of Cuba as soon as it could be honorably accomplished. 
He opposed the Clayton-Bulwer treaty on the ground that 
it would prevent the United States from extending south- 
wards. He was a candidate for the nomination to the presi- 
dency in 1852 but was defeated. At the congressional ses- 
sion of 1853-4 he introduced the bill to organize on a " pop- 
ular sovereignty " basis the territories of Kansas and Ne- 
braska — a measure which revolutionized American politics 
and brought the discussion regarding slavery to a white 
heat. It killed the old Whig party and created the anti- 
slavery " black Republican " party. It repealed the Mis- 
souri compromise which confined slavery to the states south 
of Mason and Dixon's line and opened the way, claimed 
its opponents, for the indefinite spread of slavery. The bill 
itself declared its purpose to be " not to legislate slavery 
into any state or territory nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
constitution of the United States." On the basis of this 
doctrine of " popular sovereignty " Douglas tried for the 
nomination for president in 1856 but was defeated by Bu- 
chanan. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was very unpopular 
with the anti-slavery element and, as Douglas said, he 
could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of his own 
burning effigies. But when the question of secession arose 
Douglas stood firm for the Union. 

Douglas defeated Lincoln for senator in the contest of 
1857-8 but his speeches did not add to his strength outside 
of Illinois. In I860 Douglas ran against Lincoln for the 
presidency supported by the northern section of the 

347 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

Democratic party, the south going for Breckenridge. After 
his defeat and the declaration of the south for secession 
Douglas remained staunch to the Union and died in 1861, 
declaring secession to be " crime and madness." 

85 Letter to Hon. G. Robertson. The Hon. George 
Robertson had been chief justice of Kentucky from 1829 to 
1843. In the closing paragraph of this letter Lincoln 
strikes the note of his " divided house " speech delivered 
three years later. 

87 Letter to Speed. This frank expression of Lincoln's 
views on slavery has been much quoted. The condition of 
affairs in Kansas brought about by the Missouri compromise 
excitement deserved the name it received of " civil war." 
The commissioners appointed to inquire into it reported that 
it lasted from November 1855 to December 1856 and that 
the loss of life was something under 200. It further re- 
ported : 

Amount of crops destroyed $37,349-61 

Number buildings burned 78 

Horses taken or destroyed 368 

Cattle taken or destroyed 533 

Property taken or destroyed by pro-slavery men. $31 8,718.63 
Property taken or destroyed by free-state men . . $94,529.40 

91 Speech at Galena. The closing words of this speech 
are famous. Secession talk was just beginning to assume 
importance. 

93 Speech at Chicago. In the campaign of 1856 
Fremont ran as the candidate of the newly formed Repub- 
lican party in the organization of which Lincoln had been 
active. It opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise 
and urged the admission of Kansas as a free state. The 
Know-nothings nominated Fillmore. The Democrats elected 
their candidate, James Buchanan. Lincoln narrowly es- 
caped being nominated for vice president on the Republican 

348 



j 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

ticket. His closing address in the campaign is known as 
" Lincoln's lost speech." So moved were his hearers that 
they " arose from their chairs with pale faces and quivering 
lips and pressed unconsciously toward him." Even the re- 
porters forgot to take notes. Joseph Medill, afterwards 
editor of the Chicago Tribune, says : " I well remember 
that after Lincoln had sat down and calm had succeeded 
the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance and 
thought of my report to the Tribune. It was some satis- 
faction to find that I had not been ' scooped ' as all the 
other newspaper men had been equally carried away by the 
excitement caused by the wonderful oration and had made 
no report or sketch of the speech." In this Cliicago speech 
Lincoln shows at least one great gift in a leader of men — 
that of inspiring new hope in defeated followers. 

John Charles Fremont was the brave and high-spirited 
young explorer who did so much to open the west and 
earned the title of Pathfinder. From 1842 to 1854 he ex- 
plored the Rockies, Utah and California. He served in the 
civil war and was nominated in 1865 by Republicans dissat- 
isfied with Lincoln but withdrew from the contest. 

96 Dred Scott. The Dred Scott decision was delivered 
by the supreme court 6 March 1856. Scott was a negro 
whose master had removed from Missouri to Illinois taking 
the slave with him. Two years later Scott's master re- 
moved to what is now called Minnesota and there sold Scott 
to one Sanford. Scott denied Sanfcrd's right to hold him 
and claimed that his residence in a free state had given him 
his liberty. The court decided in Scott's favor but the case 
was appealed to a higher court which reversed the decision, 
then appealed to the supreme court. That tribunal handed 
down a decision on two points: (1) Is Dred Scott a citi- 
zen of the United States and as such entitled to bring suit 
in the United States courts? (2) Did Scott's residence of 

349 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

two years on free soil make him free? The supreme court 
decided against Scott, although there were dissenting voices. 
Chief Justice Taney held that when the constitution was 
adopted " negroes had no rights which the white man was 
bound to respect " and held it as " absolutely certain that 
the African race was not included under the name of citi- 
zens of a state by the framers of the constitution." Thus 
it was settled that Scott had no right to sue. As to the 
second point it was decided " that the act of congress [of 
1820] which prohibited a citizen from holding or owning 
[slaves] in the territory of the United States north of the 
line [36° 30'] therein mentioned is not warranted by the 
constitution^ and is therefore void." The intense excitement 
caused by this case was no more than it warranted for the 
decision on the second question, claimed anti-slavery men, 
practically gave a man the right to own slaves in any part 
of the coimtry and certainly made slavery possible in the 
territories. 

Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864) was first a federalist 
then a Jackson Democrat. He was attorney general of the 
United States 1831-3 and became chief justice of the su- 
preme court in 1835. He administered the oath of office to 
Lincoln at his first inauguration. 

104 Senatorial nomination. The Illinois state conven- 
tion 16 July 1856 declared by acclamation Abraham Lin- 
coln to be " the first and only choice of the Republicans of 
Illinois for the United States senate as the successor to 
Stephen A. Douglas." Douglas was renominated by the 
Democrats. The " divided house " speech before the con- 
vention was widely discussed and by some friends considered 
suicidal. W. H. Herndon tells that Lincoln, who knew he 
should be nominated, had been for some time writing it on 
bits of paper changing and correcting. It was his most 
carefully prepared address. Herndon writes: 

350 



i 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

Before delivering his speech he invited a dozen or so of 
his friends to the Hbrary of the state house_, w^here he read 
and submitted it to them. After the reading he asked each 
man for his opinion. Some condemned and no one endorsed 
it. Having patiently listened to these various criticisms 
from his friends all of which with a single exception were 
adverse, he rose from his chair and after alluding to the care- 
ful study and intense thought he had given the question 
he answered all their objections substantially as follows : 
" Friends, this thing has been retarded long enough. The 
time has come when those sentiments should be uttered and 
if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, 
then let me go down linked with the truth — let me die in 
the advocacy of what is just and right." 

The " divided house " assertion was the text for many 
tirades against Lincoln but he never in any way retracted it. 

114 First joint debate. The excitement aroused by the 
debates was not merely local. The eyes of a country roused 
almost to frenzy over the questions of the day were centred 
on Illinois. The debates were attended by crowds, the two 
parties vying with bands and processions and fireworks. 
People came for miles and listened to the three-hour speeches 
with the closest attention. It should be remembered that 
the northern half of Illinois was anti-slavery and the south- 
ern pro-slavery. In the first debate, at Ottawa in the 
north, Douglas propounded a series of questions to Lincoln 
designed to make him commit himself to anti-slavery senti- 
ments. In the second debate Lincoln asked Douglas sev- 
eral questions, chief among them: " Can the people of a 
United States territory in any lawful way, against the wish 
of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from 
its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?" 
In answering to please Illinois Lincoln saw that Douglas 
must displease the south. When his friends warned Lincoln 
against putting this question, saying that it would cost him 

351 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

the senatorship, he replied : " Gentlemen, I am killing 
larger game; if Douglas answers he can never be president 
and the battle of I860 is worth a hundred of this." 

132 Rejoinder at Quincy. Eli Whitney of Massa- 
chusetts invented the cotton gin, to clean a thousand pounds 
of cotton in a day, in 1793. At once the value of land in 
the south more than doubled and the price of slaves rose 
accordingly. The African slave trade ceased legally in 
1808 but the value of negroes tempted to many violations 
of the law. Southerners who when secession was talked 
of argued for a revival of the slave trade instanced the fact 
that between 1790 and I860 the price of a Virginian male 
"field hand" had risen from $250 to $l600. 

137 Young America. "Young America" was the bat- 
tle cry of the friends of Stephen Douglas, whose youth had 
been made a reason for an attempt to keep him from the 
highest offices. In the Democratic Review which they 
controlled they exploited this idea calling Cass, Buchanan 
and the like " old fogies." They were ardent supporters of 
the Monroe doctrine, " manifest destiny " and territorial ex- 
pansion of any sort especially the annexation of Cuba. Lin- 
coln's " world's fair " reference was suggested by the first of 
such exhibitions to be held in the United States. It was 
organized in New York in 1853. 

142 Letter to Pickett. T. G. Pickett was a newspaper 
friend of Lincoln who was anxious to be among the first to 
launch a " presidential boom." Lincoln owed much of this 
publicity and these invitations to speak all over the country 
to Douglas who was making pro-slavery speeches in the 
south and holding up Lincoln to scorn as an abolitionist. 

144 Schuyler Colfax. Schuyler Colfax, afterwards 
vice president during Grant's first term, was an Indiana 
journalist and politician. His paper, the St. Joseph Valley 
Register, was a powerful Whig organ. He was at this time 

352 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

in congress. He wrote to Lincoln that although a majority 
was opposed to slavery it was made up of such differing ele- 
ments that he who could consolidate them into a " victorious 
phalanx " in I860 would be " worthier of fame than Napo- 
leon or Victor Emanuel. In this work . . . you can 
do far more than one like myself. Your counsel carries 
great weight with it for, to be plain, there is no political 
letter that falls from your pen that is not copied throughout 
the Union." 

147 S. P. Chase. Governor Chase of Ohio was a lead- 
ing candidate for the presidential nomination in I860. Lin- 
coln made him secretary of the treasury and in 1864 he be- 
came chief justice of the supreme court. 

157 Cooper institute speech. The speech at Cooper in- 
stitute was one of the great efforts of Lincoln's life. He had 
never spoken in the east and here he faced an audience made 
up of the learning, wealth and culture of New York. He 
afterwards quaintly complained to Herndon that for the 
first time in his life he was ashamed of his clothes. Horace 
Greeley and David Dudley Field escorted him to the plat- 
form; William Cullen Bryant introduced him. The Hon. 
Joseph Choate, now ambassador to England, thus describes 
the scene: 

He appeared in every sense of the word one of the plain 
people among whom he loved to be counted. . . . As 
he talked to me before the meeting he seemed ill at ease 
with that sort of apprehension which a young man might 
feel before presenting himself to a new and strange audience 
whose critical disposition he dreaded. It was a great audi- 
ence including all the noted men — all the learned and cult- 
ured — of his party in New York : editors, clergymen, states- 
men, lawyers, merchants, critics. They were all very curious 
to hear him. . . . When Mr. Bryant presented him on 
the high platform of the Cooper institute a vast sea of eager, 
upturned faces greeted him, full of intense curiosity to see 

S53 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

what this rude child of the people was like. He was equal 
to the occasion. When he spoke his face was transformed ; 
his eye kindled, his voice rang, his face shone and seemed to 
light up the whole assembly. For an hour and a half he 
held the audience in the hollow of his hand. His style of 
speech and manner of delivery were severely simple. What 
Lowell called " the grand simplicities of the Bible " with 
which he was so familiar were reflected in his discourse. 
It was marvellous to see how this untutored man, 
by mere self-discipline and the chastening of his own spirit, 
had outgrown all meretricious arts and found his way to the 
grandeur and strength of absolute simplicity. ... He 
closed with an appeal to his audience, spoken with all the 
fire of his aroused and kindling conscience, with a full out- 
pouring of his love of justice and liberty, to maintain their 
political purpose on that lofty and unassailable issue of right 
and wrong which alone could justify it, and not to be intimi- 
dated from their high resolve and sacred duty by any threats 
of destruction to the government, or of ruin to themselves. 
That night the great hall, and the next day the 
whole city, rang with delighted applause and congratula- 
tions, and he who had come as a stranger departed with the 
laurels of a great triumph. 

Horace Greeley, in the next morning's Tribune, declared 
that " no man ever before made such an impression on his 
first appeal to a New York audience." 

176 Nomination. In the presidential campaign of I860 
Seward of New York was considered the man likely to be 
nominated. Lincoln's other rivals were: Governor Chase, 
anti-slavery Democrat, one of the founders of the new Re- 
publican party; Dayton of New Jersey, old Whig; Cameron 
of Pennsylvania, anti-slavery Democrat; Bates of Missouri, 
a Whig from a slave state. George Ashmun of Massa- 
chusetts, president of the convention (whose temporary 
chairman was David Wilmot, author of the Wilmot pro- 
viso), in later years organized the first colored regiment and 

354< 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

was president of the commission which tried the assassins 
of Lincoln. In his valedictory, Mr. Ashmun said of Lin- 
coln: 

The contest through which he has passed during the last 
two years has tried him as by fire ; and in that contest in 
which we are about to go for him now I am sure there is not 
one man in this country that will be compelled to hang his 
head for anything in the life of Lincoln. You have a candi- 
date worthy of the cause ; you are pledged to his success ; 
humanity is pledged to his success ; the cause of free govern- 
ment is pledged to his success. The decree has gone forth 
that he shall succeed. 

The nomination was well received except by the extreme 
abolitionists. Wendell Phillips wrote an article calling Lin- 
coln " the slave hound of Illinois " because Lincoln said 
that the fugitive slave law since it was a law should be en- 
forced. The presidential fight was four-cornered. There 
was (1) the Republican party with Lincoln and Hannibal 
Hamlin of Maine, which held that slavery was a moral 
wrong and that its further extension should be prohibited 
by congress; (2) the Douglas Democrats with Douglas and 
Johnson of Georgia declaring indifference to the right or 
wrongs of slavery or its extension but claiming the right of 
each territory to decide whether it should or should not allow 
it; (3) the Buchanan Democrats with J. C. Breckenridge 
of Kentucky and Joseph Lane of Oregon declaring that 
slavery was right and should be extended; (4) the Consti- 
tution Union party with Bell of Tennessee and Edward 
Everett of Massachusetts which entirely ignored slavery and 
I recognized no principle except "the Constitution of the 
country, the union of the states and the enforcement of the 
laws." 

179 Election. The popular vote in I860 stood: Lin- 
coln 1,857,610; Douglas 1,365,976; Breckenridge 847,953; 
I 355 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

Bell 590^631. The electoral vote was: Lincoln 180; Doug- 
las 12; Breckenridge 72; Bell 39. 

180 A. H. Stephens and the Confederacy. This letter 
to A. H. Stephens, the man whose oratory had once so moved 
Lincoln, was written two days after the South Carolina con- 
vention which by a unanimous ordinance had declared the 
union existing between South Carolina and the other states 
" hereby dissolved." The correspondence with Stephens 
began with Lincoln's request for one of Stephens' speeches 
in which he declared among other things: " If slavery as 
it exists with us is not best for the African constituted and 
made as he is, if it does not best promote his welfare and 
happiness, socially and morally and politically, as well as 
that of his master, it ought to be abolished." Two months 
later than the date of this letter the Confederate States of 
America framed a provisional government, with Jefferson 
Davis as president and Stephens as vice president. Stephens 
described the new government as " founded on the great 
truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that 
slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural 
and normal condition." The Confederacy, he said, was 
" the first [government] in the history of the world based 
upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth." 
Stephens differed from Davis on many points and favored 
peace in 1864. After the war he served in congress 1875- 
82 and became governor of Georgia in 1883, in which year 
he died. His best known work is his History of the War 
between the States. 

181 Farewell to Springfield. The scene of this fare- 
well was most impressive. Lincoln stood in the dingy wait- 
ing room and silently pressed the hands of his friends and 
neighbors who filed past. The emotion of the moment was 
profound. When the presidential party had entered the 
train and the conductor was about to ring the bell for the 

S5Q 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

start Lincoln's gesture prevented him and, standing on the 
platform, the president-elect delivered this simple and elo- 
quent address over which, it has been said, the shadow of his 
approaching doom seems to fall. His body was brought 
back to Springfield to be buried 3 May 1865. At the earnest 
request of the towns on the way the route was the same as 
that taken when going to Washington. 

188 First inaugural. In connection with this first pub- 
lic declaration of the new president it should be remembered 
that from January 9 to February 1 of that year the states 
of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and 
Texas had joined South Carolina in declaring themselves 
out of the Union with slavery as the " cornerstone " of the 
new Confederacy and had elected a provisional government, 
and that since December Major Anderson had been be- 
sieged in Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor after being 
forced to abandon Fort Moultrie. Lincoln sought the best 
advice in the preparation of this inaugural. Judge Davis, 
O. H. Browning and Frank P. Blair, Sr., had criticized it 
and at the suggestion of Mr. Browning all reference to a 
recapture of fortifications in the hands of secessionists had 
been omitted. Finally the new secretary of state, William 
Seward, was asked for his opinion. He thought the " argu- 
ment strong and conclusive " but suggested " some words of 
affection, some of calm and cheerful confidence." The fine 
idea in the concluding paragraph of the address is Seward's 
but improved on by Lincoln. In Seward's phrase the 
" chords of memory stretching from every patriot grave 
will yet again harmonize in their ancient music 
when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation." 
Beside the new president at his inauguration stood two old 
political rivals — E. D. Baker, his brilliant friend whose 
death was to bring Lincoln the first personal bereavement 
of the war, introduced him, and the man who took his hat 

357 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

from him as he rose to speak was Stephen Douglas^ destined 
never again to oppose his old enemy. To crown all Taney, 
of the Dred Scott decision, administered the oath. 

199 Reply to Seward. On April 1 Secretary of State 
Seward presented to Lincoln a document which all his bi- 
ographers agree in consideriitg most extraordinary. To 
Seward's obvious insinuation that his successful rival should 
practically abdicate in favor of the head of his cabinet Lin- 
coln's reply is characteristically mild yet of a firmness that 
Seward was quick to recognize. He wrote soon after to his 
wife " the president is the best of us all." 

201 Fort Sumter. The people of Charleston fired on 
Sumter after an attempt by the government to provide the 
garrison with food 12 April 1861. On the morning of Sun- 
day the fourteenth the little garrison left the fort with the 
honors of war, carrying the flag that had been fired on, — ^the 
same that was to be raised over the fort on that very day 
four years later. 

206 Fast day proclamation. General Scott, chief in 
command, and General Sherman both urged delay and dis- 
cipline before the newly recruited troops should meet the 
enemy. The battle of Bull Run, so disastrous to the north, 
was fought 2 1 July against their wishes but as a sort of con- 
cession to the popular cry for action. 

207 Letter to Fremont. The number of slaves who 
found their way into the camps of the Union forces em- 
barrassed the commanding generals not a little. Butler, at 
Fortress Monroe, had solved the problem neatly by showing 
that since Virginia claimed to be a foreign country the fugi- 
tive slave act was clearly inoperative and that as many de- 
fenses in the southern states had been erected by slave labor 
negroes were therefore contraband of war. Fremont, on 
the other hand, declared such negroes free without the per- 
mission of the president. General Hunter, who came to the 

358 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

rescue, arrived too late. Fremont had been involved in a 
quarrel with the Blair family of Missouri, men essential to 
the Union cause, which embarrassed the president; then the 
popular approval gained by his too hasty emancipation 
proclamation was dissipated by a military reverse. He was 
relieved of his command 2 November. Later in the war 
he was given another command. 

212 Letter to McClernand. John Alexander McCler- 
nand, coming from Illinois where he had been a lawyer and 
politician, was an old acquaintance of Lincoln. He had 
been a Democrat but never pro-slavery. His military career 
began brilliantly; his friends even hoped for his advance- 
ment to the chief command. Grant found him guilty of dis- 
obedience to orders and relieved him of his command in 
1863. He served in other capacities until 1864. The 
Washburne referred to was another of the Illinois politicians 
and an old friend of the president. 

216 Letter to McClellan. George B. McClellan 
(1826-85) was one of the brilliant men of his class at West 
Point. He served in the Mexican war and studied the mil- 
itary operations in the Crimea for the United States govern- 
ment but resigned from the army in 1857- He succeeded 
in business and became president of the Ohio and Mississippi 
railroad. He volunteered in 1861, assumed command of 
the department of the Ohio, drove the Confederates out of 
West Virginia and aroused so much enthusiasm that he was 
called to Washington. At the age of thirty-five, 27 July 
1861, he assumed command of the Union army after the 
resignation of General Scott, veteran of the Mexican war. 
His sudden elevation induced him to do and write many 
things which were extremely unfortunate. In his letters 
to his wife published in his autobiography these phrases 
occur during his stay at Washington: " I find myself in a 
new and strange position here; president, cabinet. General 

359 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

Scott and all^ deferring to me. By some strange operation 
of magic I seem to have become the power in the land." 
" I shall carry this thing en grande and crush the rebels 
in one campaign." " I would cheerfully take the dictator- 
ship and agree to lay down my life when the country is 
saved," and so on. In three months McClellan had drilled 
and organized the army of raw recruits into a splendid 
fighting force, but having taken the field he could not rid 
himself of the idea that the opposing army was much larger 
than his. Lincoln's plan of campaign, here given, has been 
praised by military critics. 

216 Compensated emancipation. A resolution favoring 
emancipation on the conditions suggested passed both houses 
of congress but the south paid no attention to it. The 
measure was denounced by the radical anti-slavery leader 
of the house of representatives, Thaddeus Stevens, as "about 
the most diluted milk-and-water-gruel proposition ever given 
to the American people." Congress purchased l6 April 1862, 
at an expense of nearly $1,000,000, the slaves in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and gave them their freedom. Lincoln 
had introduced a bill to this effect during his congressional 
term but it was not allowed to come to a vote. Slavery had 
been abolished by compensated emancipation in the British 
West Indies in 1838. 

221 Letter to McClellan. When some one asked Lin- 
coln why he did not insist on more courteous treatment from 
the young general the president replied: " Never mind, I 
will hold McClellan's horse for him if he will only bring 
success." After his admirable service in drilling the army 
McClellan's caution became excessive in spite of his superior 
force. Lincoln's annoyance showed itself in a few curt re- 
marks such as: " It is called the army of the Potomac but 
it is only McClellan's body guard" and: "If McClellan 
is not using the army I should like to borrow it for awhile." 

360 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

McClellan had now begun his campaign against Richmond. 
He had established a base of supplies at Fortress Monroe 
but delayed his start towards the Confederate capital. 

223 Telegram to McClellan. McClellan took a month 
to set up siege guns before Yorktown though his force out- 
numbered that of the enemy four to one. When the guns 
were set up the Confederates abandoned the position. 

227 Telegram to McClellan. General Fitz-John Porter 
had won the battle of Hanover court-house. The Confeder- 
ate forces, as the president fancied, were not at all concen- 
trating on Richmond. " Stonewall " Jackson was prepar- 
ing to attack General Banks in the valley of the Shenan- 
doah, a movement which threatened Washington seriously. 

228 Letter to McClellan. McClellan planned to make 
an advance June 26. On that day he was attacked by Lee, 
just made commander of the Confederate forces in Vir- 
ginia. McDowell had been detained from coming to rein- 
force McClellan in order to protect Washington; Banks 
had been driven out of the Shenandoah and McClellan now 
found himself cut off from his base of supplies on York 
river. He set out to establish a new base on the James river 
and after seven days of hard fighting won the victory of 
Malvern hill 1 July. McClellan's retreat from Richmond 
has been called by military critics brilliant in the extreme: 
it hardly satisfied a country waiting for a victory. On the 
night of July 27 McClellan telegraphed to Secretary of 
War Stanton: " If I save this country now I tell you plainly 
that I owe no thanks to you or any other person in Wash- 
ington. You have done your best to sacrifice the army." 
Mr. Stanton, a man of fiery temper, would have had Mc- 
Clellan court martialed for this but the president instead 
sent the letter quoted. It was from the Union point of view 
the most hopeless period of the war. 

230 Letter to McClellan. This letter was sent during 

361 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

the seven days fighting of McClellan's retreat ; the following 
letter after the victory of Malvern hill. Military critics 
think that after this victory McClellan could have taken 
Richmond but he was angry and prepared for defeat and 
left the aggressive to the other side. 

232 Appeal to border state representatives. Two-thirds 
of the border state representatives agreed in thinking this 
scheme impracticable; one-third promised to submit it to 
their constituents. It was the president's last attempt to 
put into practice his cherished scheme for freeing the slaves 
without ruining their owners. 

235 Letter to Reverdy Johnson. Reverdy Johnson was 
the leader of the Baltimore bar and was called by some the 
most brilliant lawyer in the country. Lincoln once expected 
to have an opportunity to cross swords with him when the 
two happened to be on opposite sides in a case in courts but 
on a technicality Lincoln was not allowed to speak — a dis- 
appointment he always remembered. 

237 Louisiana. Farragut^ then captain_, commanding 
the naval forces and General Butler commanding the army 
had together taken New Orleans 22 April 1862. This de- 
cisive victory opened the Mississippi which the president 
called the backbone of the rebellion. It was held by Mason 
and Slidell^ Confederate emissaries to England, to give the 
death blow to European recognition of the Confederacy. 
Lincoln urged the military governors of Louisiana, Ten- 
nessee and Arkansas to permit and aid the people in electing 
delegates to the national congress, so that they might not be 
considered in rebellion and thus escape the penalty of which 
they were warned in the preliminary emancipation proclama- 
tion. 

240 Letter to Count de Gasparin. Count Agenor de 
Gasparin, a ^ French writer, philanthropist and publicist, 
wrote two books in defense of the Union cause during the 

362 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

civil war under the titles (as translated into English) The 
Uprising of a Great People and America Before Europe. 

248 Letter to Greeley. Horace Greeley in the Tribune 
of August 20 had published an open letter to Lincoln under 
the title The Prayer of Twenty Millions, accusing him of 
placating too much the pro-slavery sentiment. 

219 Religious views. Jesse W. Fell, who knew Lincoln 
intimately, has made a long statement of the president's 
religious views in which he says: "Whilst he held many 
opinions in common with the great mass of Christian believ- 
ers he did not believe in what are regarded as the orthodox 
or evangelical views of Christianity." Mr. Fell thinks that 
Uncoln's theology was largely that of Theodore Parker. 
From these opinions none of his friends dissent. W. H. 
Herndon writes: " No man had a stronger or firmer faith in 
Providence — God — than Mr. Lincoln but the continued use 
by him late in life of the word God must not be interpreted 
to mean that he believed in a personal God." Mrs. Lincobi 
says that her husband " had no faith and no hope in the 
usual acceptation of those words." She adds: " He never 
joined a church but still I believe he was a religious man 
by nature." 

253 Preliminary emancipation 'proclamation. On July 
22 the president had assembled his cabinet and told them 
of his belief that the emancipation of the slaves was now 
a military necessity. When Lee invaded Maryland the pres- 
ident, by what he considered most valuable advice from 
Seward, decided to issue the proclamation as soon as he 
should be repulsed. JNlcClellan won the bloody battle of 
Antietam 17 September 1862, by which, though he did not 
follow up his advantage, he sent the Confederates out of 
the state. Secretary Chase's account in his diary of the 
president's words to his cabinet is most interesting. There 
was general chatting at first and Lincoln read a chapter 

363 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

from Artemus Ward's new book. Then after telling of his 
resolve to issue the proclamation after the defeat of Lee 
although the action of the army had been disappointing, he 
said : 

I said nothing to any one^ but I made the promise to my- 
self and [hesitating a little] to my Maker. ... I have 
got you together to hear what I have written down. I do 
not wish your advice about the main matter for that I have 
determined for myself This I say without intending any- 
thing but respect for any one of you. ... I know very 
well that many others might in this matter as in others do 
better than I can^ but if I was satisfied that the public con- 
fidence was more fully possessed by any one of them than 
by me and knew of any constitutional way by which he could 
be put in my place he should have it. ... I am here ; 
I must do the best I can ; and bear the responsibility of 
taking the course which I feel I ought to take. 

The members of the cabinet all approved ; only Mr. Blair 
thought the time inopportune. 

256 Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. Lincoln's vice presi- 
dent, originally a Democrat, joined the Republican party 
on account of his anti-slavery views. He was a senator from 
1857 to 1861 and after his vice presidency was again sena- 
tor 1 869-8 L In the latter year he was appointed minister 
to Spain. 

262 Louisiana. The congressional elections so much 
desired by Lincoln were held 3 December 1862. No federal 
officer was a candidate and a half-vote was polled. The 
committee on investigation declared the election perfectly 
legal and congress admitted the representatives. The presi- 
dent urged similar elections elsewhere, but congress after- 
wards refused to allow such representatives to take their 
seats and thus frustrated the reconstruction policy planned 
by the president. 

364 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

264 Carl Schurz. Carl Schurz, born in Prussia, fled 
to this country when a young man because of complica- 
tion in the revolutionary movement in his native land. He 
served during the war and was influential in enlisting Ger- 
man citizens. 

269 Battle of Fredericksburg. General A. E. Burn- 
side, who against his own wish had been given charge of 
the army, was severely defeated at the battle of Fredericks- 
burg 11 December 1862. His report of the battle referred 
to by the president was a manly document in which he 
praised the conduct of his officers and men and took on his 
own shoulders the responsibility for the disaster. The de- 
feat aroused the greatest discontent in the north but there 
seemed no man at hand better fitted for the command than 
Burnside. 

275 Letter to Hooker. " Perhaps the most remarkable 
thing in his letter/' say Messrs. Nicolay and Hay in their 
biography/ 'is the evidence it gives how completely the genius 
of President Lincoln had by this, the middle of his presi- 
dential term, risen to the full height of his great national 
duties and responsibilities. From beginning to end it speaks 
the language and breathes the spirit of the great ruler, 
secure in the popular confidence and official authority, equal 
to the great emergencies that successively rose before 
him." 

270 Emancipation proclamation. The eff'ect on the 
slaves of this historic document, to the signing of which the 
president's letters have shown him to have been driven by 
force of circumstances and against his feeling of justice to 
the slave-holders, may perhaps best be illustrated by a 
quotation from Booker T. Washington's autobiography en- 
titled " Up From Slavery." In this volume we get a de- 
scription of that supreme moment from one who was himself 
a slave-bo}^ on a Virginia plantation: 

365 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in 
the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, 
and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the 
plantation songs had reference to freedom. True, they had 
sung the same verses before, but they had been careful to 
explain that the "freedom" of these songs referred to the 
next world and had no connection with life in this world. 
Now they gradually threw off the mask and were not afraid 
to let it be known that the " freedom " in their songs meant 
freedom of body in this world. The night before the event- 
ful day, word was sent to the slave quarters to the effect 
that something unusual was going to take place at the " big 
house " the next morning. There was little if any sleep 
that night. All was excitement and expectancy. Early the 
next morning word was sent to all the slaves, old and young, 
to gather at the house. In company with my mother, 
brother, and sister, and a large number of other slaves, I 
went to the master's house. All of our master's family were 
either standing or seated on the veranda of the house, where 
they were to see what was to take place and hear what was 
said. There was a feeling of deep interest, or perhaps sad- 
ness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now recall the 
impression they made on me, they did not at the moment 
seem to be sad because of the loss of their property, but rather 
because of parting with those whom they had reared and who 
were in many ways very close to them. The most distinct 
thing that I now recall was that some man who seemed to 
be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a 
little speech and then read a rather long paper — the emanci- 
pation proclamation, I think. After the reading we were 
told that we were all free and could go when and where we 
pleased. My mother who was standing by my side leaned 
over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her 
cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this 
was the day for which she had been so long praying but 
fearing she would never live to see. 

For some minutes there was great rejoicing and thanks- 
giving and wild scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling 

366 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

of bitterness. In fact there was pity among the slaves for 
their former owners. The wild rejoicing on the part of the 
emancipated colored people lasted but a brief period, for I 
noticed that by the time they had returned to their cabins 
there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibil- 
ity of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having 
to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to 
take possession of them. It was very much like turning a 
youth often or twelve out into the world to provide for himself. 
To some it seemed that now they were in actual 
possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they 
had expected to find it. Some of the slaves were seventy or 
eighty years old ; their best days were gone. Besides, deep 
down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attach- 
ment to ^^old marster " and "old missus" and to their chil- 
dren, which they found it hard to think of breaking off. . . . 
Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves be- 
gan to wander from the slave quarters back to the big house 
to have a whispered conversation with their former owners 
as to the future. 

279 Grant at Vichshurg. General Grant had from the 
first assumed an aggressive policy and had won substantial 
victories that were disproved of by Halleck, his superior, 
on technical grounds. The president, just then irritated by 
the indecision of his generals, was urged to remove him 
but his reply was, " I can't spare this man. He fights." He 
then raised Grant to the rank of major general. Grant con- 
tinued his aggressive policy and at Vicksburg forced the 
surrender of Pemberton with about 30,000 men and 172 
cannon. 

279 Letter to Meade. The battle of Gettysburg was 
fought on the three first days of July 1863. Lee had 
dreamed of taking Philadelphia but the repulse given him 
by General Meade was so severe that had it been followed 
up the popular belief was that the war would have been 
ended shortly. 

367 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

282 Letter to Mrs. Lincoln. After the death of William 
Lincoln, Thomas, or " Tad/' seemed to grow especially dear 
to his father. Colonel John Hay writes: 

" Tad " was a merry, warm-blooded, kindly little boy, 
perfectly lawless and full of odd fancies and inventions, the 
" chartered libertine " of the executive mansion. He ran 
continually in and out of his father's cabinet, interrupting 
his gravest labors and conversations with his bright, rapid 
and very imperfect speech, — for he had an impediment 
which made his articulation almost unintelligible until he 
was nearly grown. He would perch upon his father's knee, 
and sometimes even on his shoulder, while the most weighty 
conferences were going on. Sometimes, escaping from the 
domestic authorities, he would take refuge in that sanctuary 
for the whole evening, dropping* to sleep at last on the floor, 
when the president would pick him up and carry him tender- 
ly to bed. 

284? Letter to J. C. Conklin. The Republicans of 
Illinois held a mass meeting in Springfield and J. C. Conklin 
was chairman of the committtee on arrangements that in- 
vited Lincoln to be present and speak. In June 1863 a 
meeting had been held in Springfield in opposition to the na- 
tional government, as part of a movement to form a north- 
western confederacy, and this was the answer. Lincoln 
thought he had written " rather a good letter." Its success 
was immense; Mr. Nicolay calls it Lincoln's "last stump 
speech." 

289 Gettysburg address. Critics are agreed that this 
brief speech ranks with the world's great orations. At the 
time Lincoln said to a friend: " It is a flat failure. The 
people won't like it." The next day Edward Everett, who 
delivered the long oration of the day, wrote to Lincoln: 
" I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as 
near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you 

368 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

did in two minutes." Mrs. Lincoln remarks that her hus- 
band seemed to think "more than ever" on religious mat- 
ters " about the time he went to Gettysburg." 

291 Letter to Governor Hoadley. The president's len- 
iency and willingness to pardon military offenders gave 
great dissatisfaction to the war department and officers in 
the field, who claimed that he destroyed discipline. Lincoln 
seemed incapable of ordering the death of anyone. He 
called the instances of cowardice in the face of the enemy 
" leg cases " and asked: " If the Lord gives a man a pair of 
cowardly legs how can he help their running away with 
him?" One of the most touching instances of his pardoning 
an offender is that of William Scott. Scott was a mere boy 
and had offered to go on guard for a sick comrade after 
forty-eight sleepless hours, with the result that he was found 
asleep at his post and was sentenced to be shot. The presi- 
dent visited him in his tent, talked with him, looked at the 
photographs of the people at home which the boy carried 
with him, then informed him that he should not be shot on 
the morrow. He added that Scott owed him a great deal 
and asked if he intended to pay the debt. The astonished 
boy tried to express his gratitude and, misunderstanding, ex- 
plained that with the bounty and his pay and the folks at 
home and the " boys " he thought he could in time raise $500 
or $600. Lincoln said that the debt was far more than that 
and could be paid only by courage and attention to duty. 
Scott proved himself worthy and fought until desperately 
wounded some time after. With his last words he sent a 
message to Lincoln to say that he had tried to pay the debt 
and thought in his last moments of the president's kind face 
and thanked him once again for having permitted him to 
fall a soldier in battle rather than as a coward at the 
hands of his comrades. 

296 Fort Pillow. Forrest, the Confederate cavalry 

369 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

man, reported that at Fort Pillow 13 April 1864 he had in 
thirty minutes stormed a fort manned by 700 and captured 
the entire garrison, killing 500. The majority of the killed 
were colored soldiers. The Confederate loss he put at 20 
killed and 60 wounded. To this report, slightly exag- 
gerated, Lincoln refers. On 1 May 1863, the Confederate 
congress had passed a joint resolution which prescribed that 
white officers of negro Union soldiers should " if captured 
be put to death or be otherwise punished at the discretion of 
the court." This command was never carried out, and the 
Fort Pillow incident is the only record of cruelty to negro ' 
troops. The president did not retaliate. About a year 
before the battle of Fort Pillow Lincoln discussed with the 
negro orator Douglass the propriety of a retaliatory measure 
to the resolutions of the Confederates. Douglass says: 

I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, 
the tearful look of his eye, and the quiver in his voice when 
he deprecated a resort to retaliatory measures. " Once be- 
gun," said he, ^* I do not know where such a measure would 
stop." He said he could not take men out and kill them in 
cold blood for what was done by others. If he could get 
hold of the persons who were guilty of killing the colored 
prisoners in cold blood the case would be different, but he 
could not kill the innocent for the guilty. 

298 Letter to Grant. Grant was put in command of 
all the armies of the north in March 1864. He was invested 
with the rank of lieutenant general, before the civil war 
only twice conferred, once on Washington and once on Scott. 
Grant from the first was gladly allowed to take matters 
largely in his own hands. In reply to the letter of the presi- 
dent here given Grant wrote : " From my first entrance into 
the volunteer service of the country to the present day I have 
never had a cause of complaint. I have been astonished 

370 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

at the readiness with which everything asked for has been 
yielded, without even an explanation being asked. Should 
my success be less than I desire and expect the least I can 
say is the fault is not with you." 

Grant in his Memoirs tells a characteristic story of the 
way Lincoln referred to army conditions past and present. 
The president told him the following story: "At one time 
there was a great war among the animals and one side had 
great difficulty in getting a commander who had sufficient 
confidence in himself. Finally they found a monkey by 
the name of Jocko who said he thought he could command 
their army if his tail could be made a little longer. So they 
got more tail and spliced it on to his caudal appendage. He 
looked at it admiringly and then he thought he ought to have 
a little more still. This was added and again he called for 
more. The splicing process was repeated many times until 
they coiled Jocko's tail around the room filling all the space. 
Still he called for more tail and there being no other place 
to coil it they began wrapping it around his shoulders. He 
continued his call for more and they kept on winding the 
additional t^il round him until its weight broke him down." 
Grant replied: "Mr. President, I will not call for more 
assistance unless I find it impossible to do with what I al- 
ready have." 

300 Renomination. Lincoln was renominated for presi- 
dent 7 June 1864. There was some opposition from both 
conservatives and radicals but it amounted to little. Secre- 
tary of the Treasury Chase was a rival for nomination 
and a dissatisfied section put up Fremont. Andrew John- 
son of Tennessee was nominated for vice president. Mc- 
Clellan was the Democratic candidate. 

S02 Memorandum. The great loss of life in Grant's 
operations against Richmond, the arguments of Greeley who 
disagreed with Lincoln, the defection of Chase who resigned 

371 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

his office and the brilliant generalship of Lee had all caused 
great dissatisfaction in the country. 

307 Re-election. Before election day important land 
and naval victories had been gained. Lincoln received 212 
out of 233 electoral votes. 

308 Message to congress. The great question before 
the country at this time was the passing of the thirteenth 
amendment to the Constitution by which slavery should be 
made impossible forever in the United States. This was 
passed 31 January 1865; 119 voted for it^ 5Q against and 8 
did not vote. The issue was considered uncertain up to 
almost the last and the result was received by the anti- 
slavery party with the wildest demonstrations of joy. A 
salute of 100 guns announced the result. 

313 Letter to W. T. Sherman. General W. T. Sher- 
man took the city of Savannah after his famous march to 
the sea 24 December 1864. Thus the Confederate army 
was diminished to practically one force^ that about Rich- 
mond. 

314 Peace conference. Lincoln afterwards went him- 
self to meet the peace commissioners but they seemed to de- 
sire armistice rather than peace and the conference came to 
nothing. 

315 Draft of message to congress. This was the presi- 
dent's last attempt to save the south from financial ruin; 
it was not^ however^ change of opinion but death that put ; 
a stop to his efforts and placed in his stead men so much 
less far-seeing and considerate. At the cabinet meeting, 
according to Mr. Nicolay, " with the words * You are all 
opposed to me,' sadly uttered, the president folded up the 
paper and ceased the discussion." 

316 Second inaugural. This inaugural and the Gettys- 
burg address are the high water mark of Lincoln's eloquence. 
The London Times called this inaugural the most sublime 

372 



NOTES ON THE TEXT 

state paper of the century. Exactly two months later this 
address was read over Lincoln's grave. 

320 Last public address. Lee had surrendered 9 April 
1865. The president's last public utterance centres around 
the question before the country — reconstruction — a process 
that^ had he lived, it is fair to suppose would have been far 
better and more speedily accom.plished. Lincoln was assas- 
sinated on the evening of the fourteenth. 



S7S 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 



Abraham Lincoln: A History. 10 vols. Nicolay and Hay. 

Life of Abraham Lincoln. Herndon and Weik. 

Life of Abraham Lincoln. Ward H. Lamon. 

Early Life of Abraham Lincoln. Ida M. Tarbell. 

Abraham Lincoln. Noah Brooks, 

Life of Abraham Lincoln. Isaac N. Arnold. 

Administration of President Lincoln. Henry J. Raymond. 

Abraham Lincoln, a Man of the People. Norman Hapgood. 

The True Abraham Lincoln. W. E. Curtis. 

Life of Lincoln. J. T. Morse. 

Memoirs. U. S. Grant. 

McClellan's Own Story. G. B. McClellan. 

The American Conflict. Horace Greeley. 

History of the War Between the States. A. H. Stephens. 

History of the United States from the compromise of 1850. 

J. F. Rhodes. 
Lincoln Memorial Bibliography. A. S. Boyd. 



S74 



INDEX 



Abolitionism, the right way to re- 
gard, 13. 

Abolitionist, Lincoln declared an, 
90. 

Abolitionists, southern recruits 
among, 76. 

Admission of states into Union, 
Lincoln's position as to, 117, 
118. 

Africa, return of negroes to, 76, 
103. 

African slave-trade, forbidden, 
77, 78 ; revival of, by Doug- 
las's popular sovereignty doc- 
trine, 146, 147, 196 ; period of 
extinguishment of, 154 ; Dem- 
ocratic call for revival of, 159. 

Aliens, Lincoln's attitude toward, 
143. 

Allen, Col. Robert, letter to, 6. 

Ambition, Lincoln's personal, 5 ; 
misdirected, 12, 15, 275 ; well 
directed, 14, 275. 

American Baptist home mission 
society, preamble and resolu- 
tions of, 299. 

American people, patriotism of, 
7, 8, 11-15, 191 ; resources, 
advantages, and powers of, 
276, 310 ; loyalty of, 203, 204, 
308, 309, 316. 



Amnesty, offer of general pardon 
and, 311. 

Anarchy, tendencies toward, 11 ; 
relation to secession, 195. 

Anderson, W. G., letter to, 28. 

Andrews, , sentenced to be 

shot for desertion, 291. 

Antietam, battle of, 259, 

Apprenticeship of negroes, 273, 
321. 

Army of the Potomac, McClel- 
lan's plans for movement of, 
contrasted with the president's, 
216 ; McClellan relieved from 
command of, 260; congratula- 
tions to, 269 ; Hooker assigned 
to command, 275. 

Asbury, Henry, letter to, 136. 

Ashmun, George, letter to, 176. 

Assassination, reason for, 163. 

Atlanta, Ga., Sherman's march 
to Savannah from, 313. 

Autobiography of the president, 
104, 327. 

Baker, Col. E. D., Campbellite 
influence for, 47 ; patriotism 
of, 265. 

Baltimore, Md., address at sani- 
tary fair in, 295. 

Banks, Maj.-Gen. Nathaniel P., 



375 



INDEX 



letter to, regarding impedi- Burnside, Maj. -Gen. Ambrose E., 



menta, 263. 

Barnburners, support Gen. Tay- 
lor, 60. 

Bedell, Grace, letter to, 178. 

Belmont, August, letter to, 
239. 

Bible, as authority for slavery, 
125, 148. 

Bixby, Mrs., mother of five sons 
killed in battle for the Union, 
letter to, 308. 

Black Hawk war, Lincoln's ser- 
vice in, 64, 104. 

Black Republicanism, southern 
definition of, 161. 

Blair, Frank P., Jr., gradual 
emancipation scheme, 130. 

Bramlette, Thomas E., governor 
of Kentucky, conversation with, 
regarding working of emanci- 
pation, 293. 

Brooks, Preston S., on slavery,, 
132, 135. 

Brown, Gratz, gradual eman- 
cipation scheme, 130. 

Brown, John, war-cry of Demo- 
crats against Republicans, 160 ; 
Republicans not impUcated, 
160, 161 ; peculiarity of his 
insurrection, 163. 

Browning, O. H., 57, 107; letter 
to, 209. 

Browning, Mrs. O. H., letter to, 
21. 

Buchanan, James, Pierce's opin- 
ion of his election, 93 ; likened 
to Lear, 94. 

Bullitt, Cuthbert, letter to, 236. 



letter to, 281. 
Butler, Maj. -Gen. B. F., feeds 
negroes at New Orleans, 251 ; 
in Louisiana, 262. 

Cabinet, Seward declares that 
there must be union in the, 
200 ; question of dismissing a 
member of the, 302 ; disap- 
proves the recommendation of 
appropriation of money for the 
southern states^ 316. 

Cameron, Simon, suggests arm- 
ing of negroes, 294. 

Canisius, Theodore, letter to, 143. 

Capital, relation of labor and, 
213, 214. 

Cass, Gen. Lewis, invasion of 
Canada, 64 ; eating and work- 
ing capacities of, 65-67. 

Central America, question of ne- 
gro colonization in, 246, 247. 

Chase, Salmon P. , Lincoln's opin- 
ion of, 147, 175. 

Chicago, 111., fragment of speech 
at Republican banquet, 93 ; 
speech at, 105 ; speech at, 139 ; 
Republican national conven- 
tion at, 176 ; reply to commit- 
tee from religious denomina- 
tions of, asking the president 
to issue a proclamation of 
emancipation, 250. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, speech at, 147. 

Clay, Henry, campaign work for, 
in Indiana, 48 ; on annexation 
of Texas, 51 ; presidential pos- 
sibilities, 57 ; influence on Tay- 



376 



INDEX 



lor's nomination, 57 ; an "old 
horse turned out to root," 62 ; 
failure to effect gradual eman- 
cipation, 86 ; position on sla- 
very, 115; Lincoln's beau-ideal, 
115; on slavery in district of 
Columbia, 119. 

Cleveland, Ohio, address at, 
184. 

Colfax, Schuyler, letter to, 144. 

Colonization of negroes, question 
of. 76, 103, 114, 233; address 
to deputation of colored men 
on, 243. 

Colored troops, at Jacksonville, 
Fla., 278 ; their weight in the 
Union scale, 278, 286, 303, 304 ; 
employment of, 287, 294, 297 ; 
the president desires appoint- 
ment of Jacob Freese to a reg- 
iment of, 289 ; massacre of, at 
Fort PiUow, 296 ; the duty of 
the government toward, 297 ; 
numbers in the Union service, 
304 ; their hope of reward, 304.; 
attempted employment of, by 
Confederates, 321. 

Columbus, O., speech at, 147; 
address to Ohio legislature at, 
183. 

Compensated emancipation, rec- 
ommended to congress, 217, 
225, 285 ; economy of the 
scheme, 219 ; would shorten 
the war, 219 ; appeal to border 
, state representatives in behalf 
of, 232 ; preliminary proclama- 
tion regarding absolute, 254. 

Compromise of 1850, 75, 82, 85, 



89 ; a full settlement of the 
slavery question, 81. 

Confederate States of America, 
desire for peace and reunion in, 
314 ; scheme of appropriation 
of money for, 315. 

Confederate troops,prayer among, 
250. 

Conkling, James C, letter to, 
regarding Union mass meeting 
to be held at Springfield, 111., 
284. 

Cooper institute. New York, 
speech at, 157-169. 

Cotton-gin, effect of its preven- 
tion on slavery, 132, 135. 

Declaration of Independence, 
rights, equality with whites, 
status, etc., of negroes under, 
75, 99, 109, 111, 113, 115, 124, 
126, 156, 170 ; the negro's share 
in framing, 96; mutilation of, 
97 ; Lincoln's interpretation of, 
99, 100 ; its ultimate purpose, 
100; called a "self-evident 
lie," 84, 86, 124, 141, 203; 
wellspring of Lincoln's politi- 
cal sentiments, 187; continued 
the federal union, 192. 

Deist, Lincoln suspected of being 
a, 47. 

Delahay, M. W., letter to, 142. 

Delaware, estimated cost of 
emancipation in, 219. 

Democratic party, vulnerable 
point of, 25 ; sheltered under 
Gen. Jackson's military coat- 
tail, 62 ; views on slavery, 103, 



377 



INDEX 



129-131 ; degradation of ne- 
groes by, 103 ; exultation over 
defeat of Blair in Missouri, 130. 

Dictators, who can set up, 276. 

Dictionary of congress, brief au- 
tobiography for, 104. 

Divine purpose, 308, 318. 

Divine truth and justice, 198. 

Divine will, meditation on the, 
257. 

Dixon, Senator James, conversa- 
tion with, concerning emanci- 
pation, 293. 

Douglas, Stephen A., fracas with 
Francis, 27 ; Lincoln's speech 
at Peoria, 111., in reply to, 75- 
85 ; purpose to nationalize 
slavery, 75, 146 ; bill to organ- 
ize Kansas and Nebraska, 75- 
85, 89, 98 ; on equality of ne- 
groes and whites, 98, 102; 
claims that negroes were not 
included in Declaration of In- 
dependence, 99, 126, 156; of- 
fended with Lincoln's state- 
ment as to "house divided 
against itself," 105, 106 ; per- 
verts Lincoln's position in vari- 
ous speeches, 106, 112; don't 
care policy, 110, 115, 130, 133, 
169, 173 ; construction of the 
Declaration of Independence, 
110, 113, 126, 156; influence of, 
115, 125, 156; position regard- 
ing status of slavery according 
to the fathers and the Constitu- 
tion, 132, 135 ; on slavery in 
the Territories, 131, 133, 152, 
154; position as between negro 



and crocodile, 149, 173 ; popular 
sovereignty, 152 ; essay in 
Harper's Magazine, 153. See 
also Joint Debates, Negroes, 
Popular Sovereignty, Slavery, 
and other topics of discussion. 

Dred Scott decision, Lincoln on 
the, 96-102, 110, 128, 156; 
Douglas's position on, 96-102, 
110. 

Duel, arrangements for, with Gen. 
Shields, 45. 

Durant, Thomas J., letter to 
Cuthbert Bullitt from, 236. 

Election of 1860, views on fusion 
for, 142, 143, 175; danger of 
local issues in, 144, 145, 146 ; 
use of money in, 175 ; nomina- 
tion of Lincoln for the presi- 
dency, 176. 

Emancipation, plans for gradual, 
77, 86, 130, 162, 216, 232, 254 ; 
Henry Clay on, 115 ; Washing- 
ton on, 158 ; Jeiferson on, 162 ; 
effect of, on suppression of re- 
bellion, 217 ; compensated, 217, 
219, 225, 232, 254, 285; mili- 
tary, 224, 294; appeals to border 
states for, 232, 294; letter to 
Greeley on, 248 ; reply to com- 
mittee from religious denomi- 
nations of Chicago asking issu- 
ance of proclamation of, 250 ; 
its effect in Europe, 252 ; brings 
on the crisis of the contest, 
291 ; unaccompanied by servile 
insurrection, 290 ; conversa- 
tion with Gov. Bramlette and 



378 



INDEX 



Senator Dixon on working of, 
293; letter to A. G. Hodges 
concerning working of, 293 ; 
the test for complainers of, 
294 ; results of a year of trial, 
294 ; its purpose to save the 
Union, 294; in Louisiana, 321. 

Emancipation proclamation, pre- 
liminary, 253; issued Jan. 1, 
1863, 270 ; a military measure, 
272, 286, 290, 294 ; not to be 
retracted by the president, 272 ; 
notice of, given beforehand, 
276 ; alleged to be unconstitu- 
tional, 286 ; dislike of, 286. 

Equality, definition of, 100. 

Everett, Edward, letter introduc- 
ing, 233. 

Fast day, appointment of a na- 
tional, 206. 

Federal Union, Lincoln's devo- 
tion to, 81, 89, 91, 186, 248, 293 ; 
influence of slavery on the 
stability of, 81, 104, 105, 153, 
171, 181, 244; house divided 
against itself, 104; Lincoln 
does not expect it to be dis- 
solved, 105, 106 ; threatened 
secession of south in event of 
election of Republican presi- 
dent, 151, 166 ; threatened 
disruption of, 164, 184, 193; 
the one thing necessary to the 
salvation of, 182 ; devotion of 
the people to, 182, 186; the 
preservation of the business of 
the people, 183 ; perpetuity of, 
191 ; older than the Constitu- 



tion, 192; unbroken by ordi- 
nances of secession, 192 ; physi- 
cal reasons against secession, 
196 ; confederate avowal of 
purpose to sever, 201 ; its in- 
tegrity the primary object of 
the contest, 248 ; the president 
declares its restoration his sole 
purpose in carrying on war, 
248, 303 ; feeling in the border 
states, 253 ; proposed meeting 
at Springfield, 111., of uncondi- 
tional Union men, 286 ; com- 
promise embracing mainte- 
nance of, impossible, 286 ; the 
president's endeavor to pre- 
serve failing his re-election, 306. 

Fort Pillow, massacre at, 296. 

Fort Sumter, effects of assault of, 
201. 

Fortress Monroe, negotiation for 
meeting with confederate com- 
missioners at, 314. 

Free labor, 215 ; contrasted with 
slavery, 74 ; hurtful effect of 
slavery upon, 127, 149, 171. 

Free negroes, colonization of, 244. 

Freese, Jacob, president desires 
his appointment as colonel of 
colored regiment, 289. 

Fremont, J. C, presidential can- 
didacy of, 94; correspondence 
with, 207 ; emancipation proc- 
lamation of, 207 ; need of as- 
sistance, 208 ; visit of Mr. Blair 
to, 209; no imputation aga^inst 
his honor, 209 ; his proclama- 
tion discussed, 210, 211, 294; 
in Shenandoah valley, 230 ; at- 



379 



INDEX 



tempt at military emancipation, 
294. 

Fremont, Mrs. J. C, letter to, 209. 

Fugitive-slave law, Lincoln's po- 
sition on, 77, 116, 118; attitude 
of New Hampshire and Ohio 
on, 145, 146 ; enforcement of, 
184, 189, 190 ; effect of seces- 
sion on, 190. 

Fugitive slaves, constitutional 
provision for, 189. 

Galena, 111., speech at, 90. 

Galloway, Samuel, letters to, 146, 
175. 

Gasparin, Count, letter to, 240. 

Gettysburg, battle of, letter to 
Gen. Meade after, 279 ; address 
at, 289. 

Grant, Lt. Gen., correspondence 
with, 279, 298, 302, 307, 313, 
314 ; letter of acknowledgment 
of services at Vicksburg, 279 ; 
his business and fighting quali- 
ties, 281 ; letter of thanks to, 
298; declaration "I am go- 
ing through on this line if it 
takes all summer," 301; de- 
spatch to, recommending a bull- 
dog grip on the enemy, 302 ; 
letter to, respecting Robert Lin- 
coln's desire to enter the service, 
313 ; tribute to, 320. 

Greeley, Horace, letter to, 248 ; 
attacks the government on ac- 
count of captured negroes, 252. 

Gunther, C. F., Lincoln collection 

of, 137. 
Gurney, Mrs. E. P., letter to, 306. 



Hackett, J. H., letters to, 283, 
289. 

Hahn, Michael, letter to, 291. 

Hale, J. T., letter to, 181. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, letter to, 256. 

Harper's ferry, raid charged to 
Republican party, 160, 161, 163. 

Harper's Magazine, Douglas's es- 
say in, 153. 

Henry, Dr. A. G., letter to, 136. 

Herndon, W. H., letters to, 50, 
51, 60, 61 ; pecuniary matters 
with, 50. 

Hodges, A. G., letter to, 293. 

Hooker, Col. J., letter to, on his 
taking command of the army 
of the Potomac, 275 ; plan of 
campaign against Richmond, 
278. 

"House divided against itself can 
not stand," 86, 104, 105. 

Howard, Gen. O. O., letter to, 
281. 

Human freedom, test of a govern- 
ment founded on the principles 
of 276, 277, 289. 

Hunter, Gen. D., correspondence 
with, 208, 278 ; asked to go to 
Fremont's assistance, 208 ; rev- 
ocation of order of mihtary 
emancipation, 224-226, 294; 
commanding colored force in 
Florida, 278. 

Ide, Dr., letter to, 299. 

Illinois, election questions in, 5 ; 
slavery resolutions in legisla- 
ture, 18 ; Whig prospects in, 
1840, 27 ; doubtful for Taylor, 



380 



INDEX 



50 ; nomination of Lincoln for 
U. S. senatorship, 104 ; elec- 
tion of Douglas to U. S. senate, 
136 ; the president's home pride 
in, 212. 

Illinois house of representatives, 
remarks before, 25. 

Inaugural addresses, the first, 
188; the second, 316, 319. 

Independence hall, address in, 
187. 

Indiana, poetry reminiscent of 
early life in, 48 ; address to an 
Indiana regiment, 319. 

Indianapolis, address at, 182. 

Jackson, Andrew, the shelter of 
his military coat-tail, 62 ; no 
sectionalism and election of, 92. 

Jefferson, Thomas, invitation to 
Boston on his birthday, 140 ; 
his definitions and axioms of 
free society, 140-142 ; on grad- 
ual emancipation, 162. 

Johnson, Reverdy, letter to, 235. 

Johnston, , letters to, 47, 50. 

Johnston, John D., letters to, 70, 
72. 

Joint debates, Ottawa, 114; 
Freeport, 116 ; Charleston, 122, 
123 ; Quincy, 127, 132 ; Alton, 
133. 

Judd, Norman B., letter to, 135. 

Kansas, bill for territorial govern- 
ment, 75 ; the slavery question 
in, 88, 89, 90, 147; Speed's 
position on border warfare, 87 ; 
speeches in, 1-5 Dec. 1859, 152. 



Kansas-Nebraska bill, 75-85, 89, 
98. 

Kellogg, William, letter to, 180. 

Kentucky, slavery in, 87 ; address 
to people of, 147-152 ; a vital 
point, 211 ; objections to Fre- 
mont's proclamation, 211. 

Know-nothing party, Lincoln not 
a member of, 91. 

Lamborn, , on errors of the 

administration, 25, 26. 

Lawyers, advice to, 68-70. 

Liberia, colonization in, 76, 245 ; 
interview with president of, 245. 

Liberty, definitions of the word, 
295, 296. 

Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham, letter to, 
282. 

Lincoln, Edward Baker, birth of, 
49. 

Lincoln, Robert T., anecdote of, 
49 ; desires to enter miUtary 
service, 313. 

Lincoln, SaUie Bush, message to, 
73. 

Lincoln, " Tad," message to, 283. 

Lincoln, Thomas, letter to, 68 ; 
death of, 72. 

Louisiana, mob law in, 9 ; Union 
feeling in, 235 ; complaint 
against Gen. Phelps, 235 ; com- 
plaints of Union men in, 236, 
238, 239 ; letter regarding elec- 
tion of representatives to U. S. 
congress, 262 ; the president's 
desire for election in, 263 ; first 
free state governor of, 291 ; 
convention in, 291 ; negro fran- 



381 



INDEX 



chise in, 292 ; opening of public 
schools in, equally to black and 
white, 324 ; ratifies the 13th 
amendment, 325. 
Lynch law, horrors of, 7-17. 

McClellan, correspondence with, 
216, 221, 223, 226, 227, 228, 
230, 231, 232, 249, 250, 257, 
259 ; his plans for the army 
of the Potomac contrasted with 
the president's, 216; com- 
plains of being improperly sus- 
tained, 221 ; forces under his 
command, 221 ; urged to action 
by the president, 222 ; relations 
with his generals, 223 ; opposi- 
tion to army corps organization, 
223 ; loss of confidence in, 224 ; 
question of attacking Richmond 
or moving to a defence of Wash- 
ington, 226 ; inquiry concerning 
Porter's expedition, 227 ; fears 
of being overwhelmed, 228 ; 
serious reverse before Rich- 
mond, 228, 229 ; remonstrance 
against his demand for 50,000 
troops, 230 ; possibility of fall- 
ing back to Fortress Monroe, 
230 ; reinforcements from Hun- 
ter for, 231 ; thanks to, 232 ; 
difference between secretary of 
war and, 242 ; over-cautious- 
ness of, 257 ; dread of confede- 
rate invasion of Pennsylvania, 
258 ; sharp question to, respect- 
ing action, 260; relieved from 
command, 260 ; president's dis- 
satisfaction with, 265. 



McClernand, Brig.-Gen. J. A., 
correspondence with, 212, 272; 
thanks to, for services in the 
field, 212. 

McDougall, J. A., letter to, 219. 

McDowell, Maj.-Gen. Irvin, as- 
signed to defence of Washing- 
ton, 221. 

Manchester, Eng., letter to the 
workingmen of, Jan. 19, 1863, 
273. 

Mann, Mrs. Horace, letter to, 295. 

Massachusetts, free-negro vote in, 
96 ; movement against foreign- 
ers in, 143, 145. 

Meade, Gen. George G., letter to, 
after Gettysburg, 279. 

Memory, verses on, 48. 

Memphis, Tenn., Douglas speaks 
at, 149. 

Merryman, Dr. E. H., Lincoln's 
second in Shields affair, 45. 

Methodist delegation, reply to a, 
298. 

Mexican war, Lincoln's position 
on, 52-56, 58, 59. 

Miscegenation, natural disgust at, 
98 ; Lincoln's views on, 103, 
121, 122. 

Mob law, 7-17. 

Morris, Martin M., letter to, 46. 

Moulton, , letter to, 233. 

Mulattos, slavery the principal 
cause of their existence, 103. 

National union league, reply to a 

delegation from, 300. 
Native Americans, support Gen. 

Taylor, 60. 



382 



INDEX 



Naturalization, Lincoln's views 
on Massachusetts' constitu- 
tional provision in regard to, 
143. 

Nebraska, question of slavery in, 
75, 77, BO, 82. 

Nebraska bill, Lincoln's position 
on, 75, 85, 89, 98, 107. 

Negroes, lynch law for, 10 ; their 
temperament a paradox, 29 ; 
rights of, under Declaration of 
Independence, 75, 99, 109, 111, 
115, 126, 156, 170; social and 
political equality between 
whites and, 76, 98, 100, 101, 
112, 113, Hi, 121 ; colonization 
of, 76, 103,114,233,243; hu- 
manity of, 77-79, 80, 100, 101 ; 
number of free, 78 ; status in 
1776, 86, 96 ; status under Dred 
Scott decision, 97 ; position of 
Democratic and Republican par- 
ties toward, 103 ; as voters, 121, 
123 ; injustice of whites to, 124 ; 
Lincoln's position between 
whites and, 149 ; Douglas's po- 
sition between crocodiles and, 
149, 173 ; objection to the 
presence of free, 243, 244 ; de- 
clared free Jan. 1, 1863, 270; 
question of arming the, 286, 
287, 294, 304 ; as soldiers, 287, 
290 ; Secretary Cameron ad- 
vised arming of, 294; laying 
strong hands on, 294. See also 
Gjlored Troops, Freed Men, 
Miscegenation, Slavery, Slaves, 
etc. 

Negro sufirage, Lincoln charged 



with favoring, 123 ; Lincoln's 
views on, 121,147, 292. 

New England, blamed for John 
Brown's raid, 163. 

New Hampshire, free-negro vote 
in, 96 ; movement to make obe- 
dience to fugitive slave law 
punishable as crime, 145, 

New Haven, Conn., speech at, 
169-174. 

New Jersey, free-negro vote in, 
96 ; address to the senate and 
assembly of, 185 ; opposition to 
Republican principles in, 186. 

New Salem, 111., announcement 
of political views at, 5. 

New York state, probable vote for 
Clay, 57; free-negro vote in, 96. 

New York "Times," letter to edi- 
tor of, 219. 

New York "Tribune," letter to the 
president from Horace Greeley 
in, 248. 

North, allegation of sectionalism 
against, 91,157,158 ; no natural 
antagonism against the south, 
151,152. 

North Carolina, free-negro vote 
in, 96. 

Ohio, attitude toward fugitive- 
slave law, 145. 

Ohio regiment, address to the 
166th, 305. 

Old horses and military coat-tails, 
61-64. 

Owens, Mary, letters to, 18, 19. 



Pardoning power, exercise of the, 
291. 



383 



INDEX 



Peace, the president's conditions 
for, 314. 

Peck, Rev. J. M., letter to, 58. 

Peoria, 111., speech at, 73-85. 

Perpetuation of political institu- 
tions, 7-17. 

Pettit, Sen. John, declares the 
equality clause of the Declara- 
tion of Independence " a self- 
evident lie," 84, 86, 141. 

Philadelphia, address in Inde- 
pendence hall, 187, 188 ; speech 
at a sanitary fair in, 300. 

Pickett, Thomas J., letter to, 142. 

Pierce, Franklin, no sectionalism 
in election of, 92 ; annual mes- 
sage of 1856, 93. 

Pierce, H. L., letter to, 140. 

Poetry, difference between poeti- 
cal feeling and poetical expres- 
sion, 48 ; reminiscences of early 
life in Indiana, 48. 

Politics, importance of young 
men in, 60, 61. 

Polk, J. K., president of the 
United States, attitude, actions, 
etc., on the Mexican war, 52- 
56. 

Popular sovereignty, war cry of 
Douglas's campaign against 
Lincoln, 79 ; Douglas's doc- 
trine of, carried to logical con- 
clusion, revives African slave 
trade, 146 ; Douglas's doctrine 
of, 152-157, 159; definition of 
a genuine, 152 ; the sugar- 
coated name for policy of in- 
difference regarding slavery, 
173. 



Presidency, Lincoln's opinion of 
his fitness for, 142 ; nomina- 
tion to, 176 ; responsibilities 
of the, 182, 183. 

Railroads, views on construct- 
ing, 6. 

Rappahannock river. Gen. Mc- 
Clellan's plans for movement 
by way of, 216. 

Raymond, H. J., letter to, 
219. 

Reed, Rev. A., letter to, 277. 

Religious denominations of Chi- 
cago, reply to committee from, 
asking the issuance of emanci- 
pation proclamation, 250. 

Republican party, position on 
slavery, 99, 103, 127, 129, 157, 
169, 171 ; non-interference with 
slavery where it exists, 128, 167, 
169, 178, 180, 194 ; Lincoln's 
views on fusion for 1860, 143 ; 
danger in national convention 
from local issues, 145, 146; 
mistaken ideas about, 150- 
152; southern opinion of, 157; 
charged with being revolution- 
ary, 160 ; propose no violation 
of the Constitution, 164 ; nomi- 
nates Lincoln for president, 
176 ; position of, in January 
1861, 181. 

RepubUcs, is there an inherent 
weakness in, 202. 

Richmond, Va., McClellan be- 
fore, plans for movements and 
his operations, 221, 223, 226, 
227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 258; 



284> 



1 N D E :^ 



Grant's determination regard- 
ing, 301 ; evacuation of, 320. 

Right, eternal conflict between 
wrong and, 134. 

Robertson, G., letter to, 85. 

Robinson, C. D., letter to, on 
preservation of the Union and 
terms of peace, 303. 

Sabbath observance, order for, 
260. 

Sailors and soldiers, patriotism 
among, 203. 

Sangamo Journal, letter to, 5 ; 
its editor attacked by Douglas, 
27 ; reports a temperance 
speech by Lincoln, 43 ; article 
offensive to Gen. Shields in, 45. 

Sangamon county. 111., address 
to, 5 ; constituents in, 6 ; pro- 
test from members for, on sub- 
ject of slavery, 18 ; Lincoln 
cast off by people of, 46. 

Sanitary fairs, remarks on closing 
one in Washington, 192 ; ad- 
dress at fair in Baltimore, 295 ; 
speech at one in Philadelphia, 
300. 

Schurz, Maj.-Gen. Carl, letter to, 
regarding elections, 264. 

Secession, threatened in event of 
election of a Republican presi- 
dent, 151, 164; views on, 93, 
181, 188 ; the central idea of, 
195 ; not to be compared to 
divorce, 196. 

Serenades, responses to, 255, 307. 

Seward, W. H., belief of, that 
government cannot endure half 



slave and half free, 153 ; Lin- 
coln's reply to his memorandum, 
199; letter to, 229; instructions 
to, relating to the meeting with 
Confederate commissioners, 
314. 

Shakespeare, the president's ac- 
quaintance with, 283. 

Shepley, G. F., letters to, regard- 
ing Louisiana elections, 262. 

Sheridan, Lt.-Gen. P. H., de- 
spatch from Grant regarding, 
302. 

Sherman, Gen. W. T., congratu- 
lations to, 313. 

Shields, Gen. James, correspond- 
ence about hostile meeting with, 
45. 

Slave breeders, an abhorred class, 
90. 

Slave-dealer, the, 78, 90. 

Slavery, protest on subject to 
Illinois legislature, 18 ; negro 
temperament a paradox, 29 ; 
extension of, 75-85, 90, 105, 
108, 126, 128, 143; Lincoln's 
views on, 76, 87, 89, 106, 108, 
113, 118, 139, 148; speech on 
Missouri compromise and, at 
Peoria, 75-85 ; admission into 
Kansas and Nebraska, 75, 80, 
88, 89 ; self-interested position 
of both north and south in re- 
gard to, 76 ; Lincoln on aboli- 
tion of, 76, 90 ; Lincoln's po- 
sition in regard to slavery in 
states and territories, 77, 105, 
117-120, 121, 132, 152-157,164; 
gradual aboUtion of, 77, 86, 



385 



INDEX 



130, 162, 216, 232, 254 ; south- 
ern sympathies for wrongs of, 
77, 78 ; the moral principle of, 
77, 80, 126; doctrine of self- 
government for territories but 
a benefit to, 75, 104 ; effect of 
cotton gin on, 132, 135 , con- 
stant source of difficulty, 81, 
104, 105, 153, 171, 181 ; world- 
wide warnings against, 84 ; 
ultimate extinction of, 85, 106, 
107, 115, 132, 135; views, ac- 
tions and purposes of the fath- 
ers in regard to, 85, 96-98, 99, 
104, 107, 111, 112, 114, 115, 
121, 132, 158, 172; Lincoln's 
hatred of, 87, 107 ; position 
under U. S. Constitution, 87, 
123, 164, 165, 194 ; the Dred 
Scott decision, 96-102, 116, 
156 ; congressional prohibition 
of, in the territories, 96, 97, 
117, 120, 126, 155, 164, 194; 
condition of, in 1776, 86, 96- 
98 ; views of Republican party 
on, 99, 103, 127, 129, 157- 
169, 171, 181 ; Democratic 
views on, 103, 129, 130 ; a mat- 
ter of property, 104, 169 ; Lin- 
coln's declaration of non-inter- 
ference with existing, 108, 128, 
150, 169, 178, 180, 189, 194; 
Douglas's position on, in states 
and territories, 110, 115, 130, 
133, 169, 173; abolition of the 
District of Columbia, 117, 119, 
120, 128 ; the Bible as author- 
ity for, 125, 148 ; a wrong to 
whites and free labor, 127, 



149, 171 ; not regarded by 
Douglas as a moral question, 
130, 133, 134 ; Douglas's claim 
that it must always exist, 132, 
134; period of comparative 
peace with, 154, 160; Washing- 
ton's views on, 158 ; word 
avoided in the Constitution, 
165 ; likened to a venomous 
snake, 172 ; the president's 
position against, 180, 181 ; the 
only substantial dispute be- 
tween north and south, 196 ; 
suggestions as to emancipation 
by purchase, 217, 219, 225, 
232, 254, 285 ; the president's 
attitude between the Union 
and, 248, 287. 

Slaves, contrasted with hired la- 
borers, 74 ; charge against Re- 
publicans of stirring up insur- 
rections among, 160 ; affection 
for masters, 162 ; Jefferson on 
gradual deportation of, 162. 

Slave-trade, Lincoln's position in 
regard to prohibition of, be- 
tween different states, 77, 117, 
119; declared piracy, 78; re- 
vival demanded by some, 83. 

Smith, Truman, letter to, 179. 

South, Lincoln's absence of prej- 
udice toward, 76, 157 ; public 
opinion of, regarding slavery, 
77, 78, 181, 196; threatened 
secession of, in event of election 
of Repubhcan president, 151 ; 
numerical inferiority of, to 
north, 152; charges sectional- 
ism against the Republican 



386 



INDEX 



party, 157-166 ; Republicans 
never made war upon, 160 ; de- 
mands of 166, 167 ; assurance 
given to people of, through A. 
H. Stephens, of Lincoln's feel- 
ings toward, 180-181 ; appre- 
hensions in, regarding a Re- 
publican administration, 188 ; 
Union feeling in, 235-238; 
question of sending representa- 
tives to Congress, 262, 263 ; al- 
leged purpose of the president 
to enslave or exterminate the 
whites of, 273 ; influence of col- 
ored troops in, 278. 

South America, scheme for negro 
colonization, 246. 

Speed, J. F., letters to, 30, 31, 32, 
40, 42, 43, 46, 49, 87 ; position 
on slavery question, 87. 

Speed, Miss Mary, letter to, 29. 

Speer, W. S., 178. 

Springfield, 111., address before 
young men's lyceum, 7-17; dull 
life in, 18 ; speech in house of 
representatives at, 25-27 ;Wash- 
ingtonian temperance society, 
33-40 ; speech on Dred Scott 
decision, 96-104 ; Lincoln's 
speech at, to convention nom- 
inating him for the senate, 
]04, 105; Douglas's criticisms 
of Lincoln's speech at, 105 ; 
lecture on discoveries, inven- 
tions and improvements, de- 
livered at, 137-139 ; farewell 
address at, 181; proposed meet- 
ing of unconditional Union men 
at, 284-286. 



Squatter sovereignty, 145. 

Stafford, E., letter to, 175. 

Stanton, E. M., correspondence 
with, 289, 291. 

Stephens, A. H., Lincoln's opin- 
ion of his oratory, 57; letter to, 
180 ; at Hampton Roads, 314. 

Stone, Daniel, signer of protest 
on subject of slavery, 18. 

Stuart, John T., letters to, 27, 28. 

Suffrage, opinion on, 6; exercise 
of the right by aliens, 143. 

Taney, R. B., decision in the 
Dred Scott case, 96-100. 

Taylor, Gen. Zachary, prospects 
of his nomination for presi- 
dency, 57 ; nomination for 
the presidency, 59 ; Lincoln's 
speech on his candidacy in 
U. S. house of representatives, 
61-67. 

Temperance, views on, 33-40. 

Territories, slavery in, 75-85, 117, 
120, 146, 152-157, 159, 172, 173; 
Douglas's position on slavery, 
131, 133 ; views of framers of 
U. S. Constitution as to slavery 
in, 132 ; Douglas's position on 
admission of, on basis of popu- 
lation, 155 ; Lincoln's views on 
acquisition of further, with re- 
gard to the slavery question, 
181. 

Trenton, address at, 185. 

United States, advantages of, 7 ; 
dangers threatening, 7-17 ; evil 
influence in, as a repubUcan ex- 



387 



INDEX 



ample to the world, 75 ; slavery 
a disturbing and dangerous ele- 
ment in, 81, 104, 153, 171, 181 ; 
proportion of slaves in popula- 
tion, 169 ; desirability of peace 
in, 183 ; strength of our politi- 
cal fabric, 187 ; state rights, 
189 ; perpetuity of the Union, 
191 ; hostiUty to, how to be 
met, 192 ; proficiency in in- 
dustrial arts, 266 ; population 
statistics of, 215, 267, 310; 
suited geographically for one 
nation only, 267, 268; re- 
sources, 309, 310 ; a test of re- 
publican government, 202, 289. 

United States congress, messages 
to, 201-206, 213-215, 216-218, 
266-269, 290, 308-312; com- 
mittee from, announces result 
of electoral count, 316. 

United States Constitution, au- 
thorizes congress to abolish 
slavery in District of Columbia, 
18, 128 ; Lincoln's adherence 
to, 87, 145,164,181, 189-192; 
position of slavery under, 107, 
118, 122, 164, 165; no violation 
of, proposed by Repubhcan 
party, 150, 164, 181 ; silence as 
to right to carry slaves into 
territories, 164, 165, 194; 
framed to exclude the idea of 
property in man, 165 ; support 
of, 188-192 ; contains founda- 
tion of perpetuity of Federal 
Union, 191. 

United States house of repre- 
sentatives, remarks in, Jan. 5, 



1848, on carriage of mails, 51 ; 

speech in, July 27, 1848, 61-67. 
United States senate, Lincoln's 

candidacy for, 104. 
United States supreme court, the 

Dred Scott case in, 96-100. 
Utica, N. Y., address at, Feb. 18, 

1861, 185. 

Volunteers, disaffection among, 
consequent on Fremont's liber- 
ation of slaves, 211. 

Washburne, E. B. , interview with, 
212. 

Washington, George, reverence 
for, 40 ; warning against sec- 
tionahsm, 158; expresses views 
on slavery to Lafayette, 158. 

Washington, D. C, abolition of 
slavery in, 18, 117, 119, 120, 
128; defence of, 221, 227, 
228, 230 ; address at a Union 
meeting in, Aug. 6, 1862, 241 ; 
invitation to J. H. Hackett to 
visit, 283; remarks on closing 
a sanitary fair in, 292. 

Weed, Thurlow, compliments the 
president on his inaugural ad- 
dress, 319. 

Whig party, prospects in Illinois, 
1840, 27; favor Gen. Taylor 
for presidency, 57 ; Lincoln's 
connection with, 90. 

White, H. L., support of, 7. 

Williams, A., letters to, 57, 59. 

Wilmot proviso, Lincoln's votes 
for, 90. 

Woman suffrage, opinion on, 6. 



388 



INDEX 

Women of America, 29-2. Young men, their importance in 

Workiiigmen of London, Eng., politics, 60, 61. 

letter to, 276. Young men's lyceum, Sprmgfield, 

Workingmen of Manchester, 111., address before, 7-17. 

Eng., letter to, 273. 



389 



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best. The reprints are unabridged and unexpurgated. 

All editorial matter tends to convey exact encyclopedic 
information rather than the personal opinions of the editor. 
This information is intended to be helpful and readable. 
It includes the bibliographical story of the book — under 
what conditions it was written, how it was received and what 
place it has come to occupy in the minds of men — the bio- 
graphical story of the author, terse notes explaining allu- 
sions and proper names in the text, a table of dates show- 
ing the place of the author and his book in literary history, 
a glossary where needed, an index, and a table of authorities. 



IS THIS ANOTHER LITERARY PIRACY? The 

copyright laws of every country will be scrupulously ob- 
served. Wherever the circumstances warrant the Unit re- 
print will be issued by arrangement with the former owner 
of the literary rights involved, though the work in question 
may be technically not in copyright. 

The series does not consist exclusively of non-copyright 
books, but includes books still in copyright in the United 
States and in Great Britain. By arrangement with their 
authors certain books of practical value are to be issued on 
the unit system. 

392 



ARE THE BOOKS PRESENTABLE? The Unit 
issues are printed in a broad-faced type, clear and legible, 
and not from worn-out plates. The paper is a creamy bufi', 
opaque and light in the hand. It is technically known as 
"featherweight/' and is peculiarly soft and mellow. The 
margins are wide and the effect is simple and dignified. 

Dr. Johnson once said: "The books that can be held in 
the hand and carried to the fireside are the best after all." 
We had the good doctor's dictum in mind when the question 
of format had to be decided. We remembered also that Sir 
Walter Scott was fond of a certain edition of his works, 
chiefly on the score of its size. And we founded our format 
on the dimensions of this edition. In height seven inches, 
in breadth four and three-quarter inches. In thickness vary- 
ing from five-eighths to one inch, our volume is a trim, com- 
pact book of a size that does not weary the wrist, but is 
pleasant to carry in the pocket and large enough to appear 
well on the library shelf. The issues vary in length from 
200 to 600 pages. 

The paper and cloth-bound copies will have cut edges and 
the full leather-bound copies a gilt top. The paper wrap- 
per is stout and will not tear readily. The cloth cover is a 
durable linen crash stamped in gold. The full leather bind- 
ing is in a new pattern lettered in gold. All the bindings 
are flexible and will bear long usage. A dark green is the 
uniform color of the three bindings. This is the type-face 
adopted for this series. This is the quality of paper used 
in all editions. Future issues will be printed on a thicker 
paper, thus reducing so far as practicable the transparent 
effect. These are the margins and the dimensions of the 
book itself. 



WHY "A NEW WAY OF PUBLISHING BOOKS"? 

We began with the proposition that books worth having are 
too dear in this country. Here the dear books and the cheap 

393 



books are dearer than the corresponding books of the great 
reading nations of Europe. Such is the need. We answer 
it with The Unit Books, the cheapest series of books ever 
published in America and made on a system fair to book- 
producer and to book-buyer. 

Our books are sold at prices based on the length of the 
book and therefore on the actual cost of production. How- 
ever long the original text, we publish it in its entirety on a 
uniform quality of paper and in the same size of type. The 
length and binding of the book determine its price. 

We begin with our unit of 25 pages. 

The price of each set of 25 pages is one cent. 

The price of 100 pages is 4 cents, and each additional 
25 pages adds one cent to the price. 

Thus, 250 pages cost 10 cents and 400 pages cost 16 
cents. 

We bind our books in three bindings — 

(1) Stiff paper of a durable sort. 

(2) Cloth with gold title. 

(3) Full leather lettered in gold. 

A paper wrapper is given with the printed pages. 

The cloth cover costs 30 cents additional. 

The full leather binding costs 50 cents additional. 

The price of the single volume is regulated by the number 
of units it contains and by the binding you choose. 

Postage is charged extra at the rate of eight cents per 
volume. Orders must be accompanied by the proper remit- 
tance, as we cannot afford to open small accounts. 

It is this principle of proportionate prices which the gen- 
eral title of the series is intended to emphasize. The price 
of the book is printed on the paper wrapper, and is in- 
serted in the cloth and leather bindings in such a way as 
to permit its removal without damaging the book. 

This new system of publishing is more logical than the 
system of fixed prices for reprints. Other things being 
equals it costs less to produce a short book than a long one. 

394 



Hitherto the selling price of the short book has been as high 
as that of the long. And even the longest book has not 
been sold to you at a loss. We give you the benefit of the 
saving on the shorter book. Our prices are regulated by 
the cost of the actual materials and workmanship which go 
toward the making of the book. 



WITH WHAT BOOKS DOES THE UNIT SERIES 
BEGIN. ^ In compiling this list of the first 100 books the 
publisher attempted to produce a catholic collection of books^ 
in which every person, however unusual his literary tastes, 
may find at least one book to satisfy and profit him. This 
list will be amended and added to from time to time. The 
texts will appear on the first day of each month and the 
year's issue of 12 unabridged volumes may be subscribed 
for in advance as though it were a monthly magazine. We 
are at present unable to quote the proposed yearly subscrip- 
tion price. This information will be given in a later bulletin. 
As the lengths and prices of The Unit Books are determined, 
announcements will be made in these bulletins. 

The Unit Books may be had separately. 

The list is tentative. We invite suggestions from every 
lover of good books. If you would like to see a reprint of 
any book write us about it. 

1 The Marble Faun Hawthorne 1 Sept. 1903 

21 units (524 pages) 
paper 21 cts 
cloth 51 cts 
leather 71 cts 

2 Letters and Addresses Lincoln 1 Oct. 1903 

16 units 

paper l6 cts 
cloth 46 cts 
leather 66 cts 
395 



3 Tales of Mystery (21 stories) Poe 1 Nov. 1903 

21 units 

paper 21 cts 
cloth 51 cts 
leather 71 cts 

4 Life of Jesus Renan 1 Dec. 1903 

5 Prue and I Curtis 1 Jan. 1904 

9 units 

paper 9 cts 

cloth 39 cts 

leather 59 cts 

6 Domestic Manners of the Americans 1 Feb. 1904 

Mrs. Trollope 

7 Study of Words Trench 1 Mch 1904 

8 The Philippines in the Seventeenth 1 April 1904 

Century Navarette and Careri 

9 John Brent Winthrop 1 May 1904 

10 Age of Fable Bulfinch 1 June 1904 

11 Knickerbocker's History of New York 1 July 1904 

(reprint of first edition) Irving 

12 Democracy in America (2 vols) De 1 Aug. 1904 

Tocqueville 

Parables from Nature Margaret Gatty 

The Conspiracy of Pontiac Parkman 

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table Holmes 

Geoffrey Hamlyn Henry Kingsley 

Doctor Thorne Anthony Trollope 

Eothen Kinglake 

Vanity Fair Thackeray 

Margaret Sylvester Judd 

Arthur Mervyn Charles Brockden Brown 

396 



National Documents (The Constitution and other state 
papers) 

The Conquest of Mexico Prescott 

The Poems of Longfellow 

Law for Every Day 

A First Book on Electricity 

The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne 

A Sentimental Journey Sterne 

On the Origin of Species Darwin 

Goethe's Faust (Anster's translation) 

The Buccaneers of America Lieut. Burney 

The Poems of Robert Browning 

Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan 

Pickwick Papers Dickens 

Tales Gaboriau 

Two Years Before the Mast Dana 

A Pronouncing Dictionary 

A Tale of Two Cities Dickens 

Henry Esmond Thackeray 

The Odes of Horace in Latin and English (Francis) 

Monarchs Retired from Business John Doran 

Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts De 
Quincey 

Chemical History of a Candle Faraday 

Our Village (first series) Mary Mitford 

Confessions of Rousseau 

Past and Present Carlyle 

The Last Days of Pompeii Lytton 

Noctes Ambrosianae John Wilson 

Some Fruits of Solitude William Penn 

Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanac Ben- 
jamin Franklin 

The Microscope P. H. Gosse 

Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 

Last of the Mohicans Cooper 

The Comedies of Sheridan 

397 



Familiar Colloquies of Erasmus 

The Rise of the Dutch Republic Motley 

Voyage of a Naturalist Darwin 

Typee Herman Melville 

Familiar Letters of James Howell 

Natural History of Selborne Gilbert White 

The Three Musketeers Dumas 

Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green Cuthbert Bede 

Physical Geography of the Sea Lieut. Maury 

A Cyclopedia of Literary Allusions 

Discourses on Painting Sir Joshua Reynolds 

A Dictionary of Classical Quotations 

A Handbook of Proverbs 

Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry 

Plutarch's Lives 

Dante's Divine Comedy 

Boswell's Life of Johnson 

Homer's Odyssey 

The Poems of John Milton 

Virgil in Latin and English 

The Essays of Sainte-Beuve 

Hakluyt's Principal Navigations 

Clarissa Harlowe Richardson 

Ivanhoe Scott 

Don Quixote Cervantes 

The Plays of Shakespeare 

Fairy Tales The Brothers Grimm 

Notre Dame Victor Hugo 

Paul and Virginia Saint Pierre 

The Old Red Sandstone Hugh Miller 

The Bible in Spain George Borrow 

Legends of the Madonna Mrs. Jameson 

Essays of Elia Charles Lamb 

The Cloister and the Hearth Charles Reade 

Adam Bede George Eliot 

Aurora Leigh Mrs. Browning 

398 



Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 

Villette Charlotte Bronte 

Nonsense Book Edward Lear 

Marjorie Fleming and Rab and his Friends John 

Brown 
Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 
St. Winifred's F. W. Farrar 

Fable of the Bees Bernard de Mandeville 
The Apocrypha 

Apologia Pro Vita Sua Newman 
Froissart's Chronicles 



Howard Wilford Bell 

publisher of The Unit Books 

259 Fifth avenue New York 
1 October 1903 



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